


Trapped in Reality

by make_it_gay_cowards



Series: A New Reality [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Complete, Cuddling & Snuggling, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fingering, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Not Canon Compliant, Oral Sex, Pining, Slow Burn, Smut, Some Plot, Trauma, Unrequited Crush, Vaginal Fingering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:14:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 46,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24106540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/make_it_gay_cowards/pseuds/make_it_gay_cowards
Summary: Queen Angella sacrificed herself to close the portal, and Adora must deal with the guilt she feels in the aftermath, as well as feelings that she doesn't understand, doesn't *want* to understand. What's the point in confronting the forbidden if the Queen is gone, as good as dead?
Relationships: Adora/Angella (She-Ra)
Series: A New Reality [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809772
Comments: 68
Kudos: 213





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first foray into writing She-Ra fics, and I've only seen the show all the way through once, so please forgive any minor inconsistencies! (Big ones you can rake me over the coals for ;) ) I love this pairing (I'm a huge slut for age gaps BETWEEN CONSENTING ADULTS) but I rarely see fics for it so hey, why not write my own? Also, I've always assumed Adora and crew were at minimum 18 when the series started, just so we're clear. Okay! Please enjoy. Be prepared for the slooowww burn.

Lips pressed to her forehead, wings lifting off around her, soaring above her to a blinding light, the slender silhouette getting smaller and smaller until—

“Angella!” Adora screamed, jolting up from her bed. The darkness around her was suffocating after the brightness that had been… only a dream. A nightmare. As soon as she realized this, the darkness retreated from her, leaving her breathless and cold. Sweat covered every inch of her body and her throat ached from the scream that had rent through her as Angella’s hand closed around her sword. 

_Angella._ Adora swung her legs off the bed and stood, swaying slightly with exhaustion. She crossed the large room to the bathroom she shared with Glimmer, and stopped at the sink. Without looking into the mirror she splashed her face with water, willing the coolness of it to center her, to push her back into _this_ reality… this reality, the one where she let the Queen take Adora’s rightful place, let her step into Adora’s destiny—

Letting out a yell of frustration and bone-deep _grief_ , Adora threw her fist into the mirror above the sink and shattered it. The pain of glass— cutting— the sound— ear splitting— brought her back. She looked down at her hand, and saw that her knuckles were bleeding. 

“Adora?” Glimmer’s entrance to the bathroom opened, and a bleary-eyed young woman walked in. When she saw the mess— the shattered glass, blood, Adora— she rushed over, yanking a towel from a shelf and covering Adora’s hand. “What are you doing?” she asked, placing a warm hand on Adora’s cheek, pulling her face to face her. 

But Adora didn’t meet Glimmer’s eyes. She removed Glimmer's hand and pulled away, letting the towel fall between them. There was silence for a few seconds, each woman knowing what the other was thinking; how could they think of anything else?

“You aren’t in this alone,” said Glimmer, her voice breaking with the weight of loss, still so fresh. 

“I’m the reason she’s gone!” Adora yelled, finally looking into Glimmer’s eyes. Though she looked so much like her father, her eyes… the color exactly as Angella’s had been. “I could have stopped her, I should have stopped her, it was my _destiny—”_

“That can’t have been your destiny, Adora, Light Hope would have mentioned that, trained you for that, but she didn’t.” Glimmer closed the distance between them. “My mom… she saved us.”

“I’m She-Ra, I’m supposed to be the one saving Etheria,” said Adora, her voice cracking, tears rushing to her eyes. Her legs were seconds from giving out, but Glimmer caught her before she fell, pulling her to one of the large poufs. “I’m so sorry, Glimmer.” 

And then she was sobbing. Guilt coursed through her as strong as just a few days ago, after she’d destroyed the portal once reality had been fixed, and had to look Glimmer in the eyes, shining from their victory, excited to see her mother, and tell her what had happened. 

“ _Angella… She stayed behind. She—” Adora pulled Glimmer into her arms. “She— she saved us.” Tears filled Glimmers eyes, disbelieving and yet, maybe she could feel it. The Queen was gone._

* * *

Time passed so quickly, the days turning into weeks, months. Glimmer’s coronation was upon them, threatening to reopen wounds. It was like putting up a huge neon sign that read “Queen Angella is dead!” The only reason Adora was able to keep everything together was because she needed Glimmer to be okay. She was her main priority; after all, it was Angella’s last request. To keep Glimmer, and Bow, safe. 

But it turned out that Glimmer was stronger than anyone gave her credit for, and her coronation was a success, and possibly the thing she needed the most. To remember her mother, and to move on, knowing that wherever she was, Angella was proud of her. 

But for Adora, it did nothing but pull and scratch and the scabs over her heart. The first night that Glimmer was officially Queen, Adora couldn’t sleep. The raw pain of her grief had subsided to an ache, deep and strong, pulsing whenever she was reminded of the former Queen. She knew that Angella could still be alive, but somehow that only made things worse. If she _were_ alive, where was she? Entrapta said that whoever closed the portal would be trapped between realities, but what did that mean?

Did she still exist somewhere out there, trapped, both by dimensions and her immortality? Was she in pain? Could she see them here on Etheria? Adora hoped so, she knew Angella would be so proud of the woman Glimmer had become. Would she also be proud of Adora? Had she seen how broken she was, how lost? If she could only send a sign. 

Aggravation pushed her off her bed, pulled her to the window where a rope dangled down to the grounds of the castle. She knew she shouldn’t leave, what if Glimmer needed her?

But Adora needed to get away, or she might explode at her, or Bow. Neither of them knew how much pain she was in. There was no reason for this, not one that they knew of. Adora was a better actor than they thought. 

Acting before she lost her nerve, Adora pulled herself over the window ledge and slid down the rope, landing with a soft thud many feet down. She glanced up at what she knew was Glimmer’s window, and then turned away, walking off into the night. 

The Whispering Woods was creepy enough during the day time; at night it was a whole other world. But over the last several months, and many sleepless nights, Adora had become accustomed to their soft whispers, wandering sounds, and the darkness only broken by curious little light particles that never seemed to dim. It became a second home, a place Adora could go to be alone, a place she could scream and nobody would hear her. 

After almost an hour of walking, she finally found her little niche. The location never seemed to be the same, but the enormous dying tree with twisting roots above ground created a shelter where she could find a little peace. But tonight, that wasn’t where she wanted to be. 

Adora pulled off her sword and it turned into a short but thick knife, and she used it to scale the tree until she reached the top. She’d bundled up the branches there, creating a seat of sorts, giving her an incredible view of the woods and the lands beyond them. She could see Bright Moon, the moonstone shimmering and full of light, as well as the Fright Zone, perpetually cloudy with pollution, well off into the distance. Catra flashed through her mind. Though she often thought of Catra with pain and guilt, it wasn’t her she mourned tonight. 

She came up here because it was where she felt closest to Angella. Adora knew that was silly, if Angella was anywhere, physically speaking, it was where the portal used to be, in the Fright Zone, but this place was nicer. Quiet, but for the soft whispers. Nearer to her Runestone, to her Glimmer. To Adora. 

In the weeks leading up to the portal catastrophe, Adora felt a change in herself, in her relationship with Angella. In the beginning, Adora was certain Angella disliked and distrusted her, the Horde soldier, and her occasional blunders didn’t help. And then their relationship became a polite, professional understanding. Adora kept Glimmer and Bow safe, and Angella respected her abilities and She-Ra, and her knowledge of Horde capabilities and strategy. But then… it was more than that. After hard battles, when they reported to the Queen, Angella seemed to seek out confirmation of Adora’s safety and wellbeing just as she did with Bow and Glimmer. 

There was that first time, Adora remembered, closing her eyes and sinking into the memory, that Angella had seemed worried about her.

* * *

Glimmer and Bow had to half-carry Adora, still in her She-Ra form, to the castle in Bright Moon. A Horde cannon had caught her off-guard, right in her abdomen. Dazed beyond pain, she had fallen to the ground where Catra had walked to her, gloating as she always did. A horde soldier kicked her in her fresh wound, and though Catra told them off, the damage and pain had been too much. Adora remembered very little, only the sounds of the other princesses joining in the fight, finishing off the rest of the Horde battalion and the soft chuckle of a Catra that knew they’d meet again.

Adora didn’t regain consciousness until Glimmer and Bow had dragged her back to Swift Wind and took off for the Castle. She staggered into the throne room to report, assuring Bow and Glimmer she could stand— and immediately fell to the ground at Angella’s feet, blood dripping from her, creating a small pool. 

“Adora!” she almost yelled, leaving her thrown and kneeling next to Adora. Through the pain and confusion, Adora remembered thinking that it was the first time the Queen had addressed her as ‘Adora’ while in She-Ra form. “What happened?” she shot at Bow and Glimmer as she carefully examined Adora’s wound.

Bow and Glimmer tried to explain, but Angella picked Adora up, all eight feet of her, off the ground and flew her to the infirmary. 

“Hold on,” she whispered, clutching Adora tightly to her. Adora looked up at Angella, worry and determination making her almost unrecognizable from the stern, unshakable woman that Adora knew. The Queen looked down, and when she saw that Adora was awake, smiled. The small smile, timid and full of relief, stirred something in Adora that she hadn’t felt in a long time, since before she left the Horde, left Catra… 

Angella set her down on a bed in the infirmary, She-Ra’s long legs hanging off the end, and backed away so healers could help her. They treated her wound, and soon she was no longer in pain, able to shift back into Adora. She sat up on the bed, making sure her sword was safely back on her arm, and started a bit when she realized Queen Angella was still there. 

The healers left her room, and the Queen came slowly to her bedside.

“I was worried you would leave us. In the legends, She-Ra was nearly indestructible…” she looked down at her hands, clasped in front of her. 

Adora’s face burned with embarrassment and anger. _Of course,_ she was still being compared to the legendary She-Ra of the past.

“I’m sorry I don’t live up to your legends,” she said, running her fingers over the sword-gauntlet, shame bubbling in her stomach, acid burning away that feeling she’d had on the flight over.

But Queen Angella took one of her hands. 

“I didn’t mean it like that, Adora. We all put too much stock in stories we were not alive to see firsthand.” She gripped Adora’s hand tighter. “My faith in your safety while you— with Glimmer and Bow— are out there fighting for us is all I have to keep me from going insane with worry.” 

Adora looked up into the Queen’s face, her dusty pink eyes shimmering with moisture. 

“We need you, Adora. Of course we need She-Ra, too, but she is nothing without the strong, bull-headed woman behind her.” The Queen’s usual curt and formal voice was clipped with emotion, soft as rose petals and something low in Adora’s stomach jerked, not from her wound, but from something warm and pleasant. 

At that instant, Glimmer and Bow materialized in Adora’s infirmary room, dispelling the moment. The Queen dropped her hand, straightened up (Adora hadn’t even noticed how close she was), and took a step back.

“Adora!” said Bow and Glimmer together, rushing to her side opposite the queen, smiles wide and eyes bright with relief. Adora turned to them, the small twinge of annoyance at their interruption extinguished by their excited relief and babbling voices. But from the corner of her eye, she saw Queen Angella quietly leave the room without another word. 

* * *

Pain bore through Adora, bringing her harshly back to reality. She stared up into the night sky, wishing there were stars to get lost in. The things she felt for the Queen were confusing, in the same way her feelings towards Catra had been. She never had any time to examine them while she’d been in the Horde, and no reason to once she left; she knew Catra hated her and that only made thinking about what they could have had even more unbearable. But Angella… she had been near, her growing affection for Adora clear to anyone who cared to notice. Even Glimmer brought it up nonchalantly while trying to talk Bow and Adora into defying her orders, saying that the Queen would forgive Adora more easily now. 

What kind of affection had it been? Adora was only a few years older than Glimmer, and there was no reason to think that Queen Angella’s feelings were anything other than what a leader would feel for a subject, a soldier. But… Angella was immortal, never aging, frozen in the time she had presumably reached maturity. Though she seemed much older than Adora in experience and perception, physically, they were near enough for Adora to think… to feel… something more than friendliness for her. 

_Stop right there,_ she thought to herself, sitting up on her makeshift seat of leaves and branches. _She’s gone. Unreachable. Untouchable. Entirely off-limits even if she weren’t…_

Annoyed with herself for the breach of carefully held-back feelings, Adora slid off the top of the tree, down the trunk, and stalked away to the Ruin of the First Ones where Light Hope was. Maybe training would take her mind off forbidden and painful thoughts.


	2. Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Horde is uncharacteristically unambitious. Adora is plagued by dreams she can't remember, but knows they have something to do with Angella, and doesn't mention them to Glimmer. Her feelings are only becoming more confused, wrapped up in duty and guilt, the past and present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How tall do y'all think Queen Angella really is? Six feet? Taller? Either way, hnnnggnh tall women. Please enjoy!
> 
> Update: made small continuity edits, the flashbacks with Angella are supposed to happen chronologically, but bots being present doesn't vibe with the next chapters content... Sorry! They just needed to be changed to some other Horde thing that is in season 1. Maybe I should plan, but I'm more of pantser. Also: Swift Wind apparently wasn't really present until after the Glimmer-Bow rescue mission, but I'm bumping that up to him being present and talking right after Adora accidentally transforms him. Alright, enough narrative snipping, please enjoy!

Life in Bright Moon began to pass slower, like the knitting of time had been taken over by an old woman, hands slow with arthritis and age. Every day was a day that Adora spent thinking about the past, the things she could have done differently, dwelling on the crucial last moment in that other reality.

Glimmer was trying her best to fill Angella’s shoes, but her new position made it difficult to remain the same carefree and headstrong person she’d been before. Adora could tell she missed going with her and Bow out to dispel Horde camps and liberate villages, but a Queen simply had different duties. 

What worried Adora was that the Horde didn’t seem to be pushing in on their territory like they should have been, like she would have if her enemies’ leader had vanished, been presumed dead. Their apparent inaction made Adora nervous, like they were closing ranks around something even worse. But whenever she brought this up with Glimmer and Bow, they thought she was being too negative. After all, they’d had many successes under their belt, perhaps the Horde was running out of steam? Maybe the portal disaster hurt them as much as it had hurt the Rebellion. Whatever it was, Glimmer and Bow saw no reason to think there was anything more than the normal rebellion worries to contend with.

But there was something else… Something Adora hadn’t told Glimmer about yet. 

For weeks now, Adora had been waking up with a dream that she could hardly remember, but shook her nonetheless. The minute she opened her eyes, it slipped from her grasp like water held in cupped hands, still there but draining, leaking, _gone._ All she could remember was a soft pulsing light, tinged with pink… It didn’t take a genius to realize it had probably had something to do with the late Queen. It was nearing a year since she had… become trapped. Maybe it was just the looming anniversary that was inspiring the dream. 

Adora wasn’t so sure. It felt less like a dream, and more like the feeling she sometimes still got whenever she made the transformation into She-Ra. Memories that were not her own being imprinted on her mind, but in an incomplete way, the same quality that a dream would have. But it wasn’t enough to tell Glimmer about, as this was no reason to open those wounds. 

Until one night, she did remember the dream. It started like her old nightmare had, Angella placing a last kiss on her forehead and taking off, but it didn’t end when she took the sword. Instead, the blinding light expanded, consuming everything until it was gone, burnt out. Adora staggered, aware somewhere in the back of her mind that this wasn’t real but unable to wake up.

And then she heard soft cries somewhere in the darkness. She stumbled towards the sound, blindly reaching out, for what felt like hours. On what must have been a horizon, a dim light was growing. Adora was running now that she had a goal, tripping over her feet but continuing on. The cries were growing louder and the light, now a pinkish hue, grew brighter with each step.

“Angella,” Adora croaked into the nothingness, and the crying stopped for a moment. 

_“Adora…”_ a voice whispered, and it sounded like it came from right beside her, but nobody was there. “ _Too… weak… Glimmer…”_ Adora was sprinting, desperate to reach her. Her presence, her voice, was a knife cut immediately followed by a salve to Adora’s healing heart. The light was pulsing, fading with each pulse, darkness closing in once again. 

“No! Don’t leave me!” Adora screamed. “Not again!” 

With an enormous, whooshing jolt, Adora shot up from her bed, still breathing hard. All traces of the closeness to Angella she’d felt were gone, replaced with a stabbing, blistering pain. It was like losing her again. Her first instinct was to go to Glimmer and console her, wracked with guilt at the big, unacceptable pile of _nothing_ she could do to prevent Angella’s loss. 

But it had just been a dream. Adora grabbed her pillow and bit into it just as the gasping, racking sobs burst forth, but she could only stifle so much. A soft knock came on her bathroom door. _Glimmer._ She couldn’t see Adora like this, not now. With every single ounce of willpower Adora possessed, she stilled her body and tears, and wiped her face of any evidence.

“Come in,” she said as calmly as she could.

Glimmer opened the door and bounded across the floor, practically throwing herself at Adora. As hard as Adora had been crying, Glimmer was crying harder. 

“ _Glimmer,”_ Adora cooed, wrapping her arms around her best friend and pulling them into a more comfortable position. “It’s okay, I’m here,” she whispered as she rubbed her back, barely holding back her own tears, hoping Glimmer wouldn't notice the way her voice shook. 

It was a while before she’d calmed down enough to struggle her way through an explanation.

“It was just a dream, but…” she said, sniffling and finally pulling herself away from Adora. Tears were still rolling down her olive cheeks, and she was shaking. Adora felt her heart pause. “My mom—” Glimmer screwed up her face, shaking even worse. “It was so real, Adora.”

“The darkness,” said Adora, taking Glimmer’s hand. “The crying…” Glimmer’s eyes shot open and pierced Adora like one of Bow’s arrows. 

“How did you…” she began, but then she looked over Adora, now shaking as well, eyes bloodshot and tear streaks on her pale cheeks. “Oh,” she said, letting out a huff of breath. They stared at each other, and then Adora let the words she’d been wanting to say for weeks spill out of her.

“I think I’ve had this dream before, the light was the same, I just knew it had to do with the Qu— Angella,” she corrected herself. “I’ve been having it for weeks.” she finished, daring a glance back at Glimmer, who looked shocked.

“So have I,” she whispered, voice almost emotionless.

“I think she’s still alive, still out there—” Adora began, but was halted when Glimmer ripped her hand out of Adora’s grip.

“No.” Short, brutal. Glimmer glared into Adora’s eyes. “She’s gone. Entrapta said—” 

“— that whoever closed the portal would be trapped, not dead—” 

“It’s the same thing, Adora!” Glimmer yelled, standing up. Pink energy was radiating from the fists that were balled up at her sides, reminding her so strongly of her mother in that moment that she could hardly speak.

“Glimmer,” said Adora finally, not really sure what to say, but wanting to take away her friend's pain, the pain _she’d_ caused in the first place. 

“Goodnight, Adora,” she said, turning away and striding out from the room without a backward glance. Adora was left, sprawled in her sweat soaked bed, feeling empty and spent. _Guilty._

* * *

“Adora.” Queen Angella’s voice rang out clear and icy in the palace stables. Every soldier and horse handler looked around and scurried out the open doors once they saw the look on the Queen’s face. A beloved Queen who could also inspire such fear was impressive, especially since Adora had seen first hand that the Queen was almost all bark and no bite, except when it came to Glimmer. 

“Queen Angella! I- uh—” Adora bent in a slight bow, straightening up at once as the Queen strode to where she had been brushing Swift Wind. “What can I—”

“I thought it was clear what your duty is to this kingdom, to me.” Queen Angella’s eyes were intense, raging, in great contrast to the rest of her face which she held in the same dignified way she always did. The force of those pale pink irises almost knocked Adora to her ass. 

“If this is about what happened to Glimmer, I—” Adora began, struggling to keep her voice even, but Angella interrupted her, stepping closer, the heat of her anger actually tangible in the small space between them.

“I do not need nor want your excuses, Adora.” The young soldier felt hot shame trickle down her spine, into her stomach and down to her toes. If she’d been faster, if she’d been paying more attention, Glimmer wouldn’t have gotten hurt. The wounds inflicted by the Horde soldiers and their fancy new weapons hadn’t been life threatening, but they could have been, and it was… no. It wasn’t entirely Adora’s fault. Glimmer charged into a battle with five fully equipped soldiers at the same time, before Adora could assess the situation. Bow had been talking their ears off about Perfuma all day, and Glimmer was frustrated— Adora understood, but the Queen…

“I pledged my sword to the Rebellion, to you, but that doesn’t mean I can be everywhere at once. Maybe the reason Glimmer is always throwing herself into dangerous situations is because she wants to prove herself, and you held her back from it all for so long that—” Adora had had more to say, but instead clamped a hand over her mouth, knowing that she’d already said too much. 

Queen Angella’s eyes, if possible, burned even brighter, the pink glow emanating from her intensifying. It seemed an eternity passed between them as Adora waited for the hammer to fall, waited for the raging storm that she’d brought on, waited for the hot pain of anger. Swift Wind was holding very still, not at all his usual sarcastic and flippant self, tail twitching in the charged atmosphere between the Queen and her soldier.

But it didn’t come. The Queen turned from her, but just before she did, Adora saw a flash of pain flicker in those brilliant eyes. Adora held her breath, not sure this wasn’t a trick to get her to let her guard down. 

“I suppose I can’t hold you responsible for everything my foolish daughter does,” the Queen said, her regal voice showing a valiant effort in keeping out any emotion, but Adora heard the sway in her voice as she said the word “daughter.” 

Adora watched Angella try so hard to hold it together. Her hands were poised in front of her as they often were, usually as steady as a rock, but now, they were shaking almost unnoticeably. Adora noticed. Her delicate lips were pursed, but Adora caught the small quiver. Her eyes… emotion swirling, completely unreigned, almost inviting Adora to say something.

“My Queen, I apologize,” said Adora softly, taking a step closer, hoping she wouldn’t pay for it if this were a trick. Somehow, she knew that it wasn’t. “I know how much Glimmer fighting worries you, and I should have—”

“No, Adora, I shouldn’t have placed that responsibility solely on your shoulders. Glimmer is a grown woman now,” said the Queen, drawing in a steadying breath. “Even if she refuses to act like it.” A small smile grew on Angella’s lips, making Adora’s heart beat a little easier, a little quicker. 

And then, Angella placed a hand on Adora’s arm. Though her hand was gloved, it was like a spark of electricity ran through her fingers straight up Adora’s spine— no doubt, her energy had pulsed, of course, Adora assured herself. 

“I must also admit that I didn’t come here solely to scold you about Glimmer,” she said, turning fully to face Adora again. Adora looked up into Angella’s eyes, concern turning what had been pink icicles into shimmering rosy pools. Her heart beat fast against her ribs. “Reports say that She-Ra took on more Horde soldiers, tanks, and cannons than anyone, that she… that _you_ stepped into other fights, endangering yourself more than necessary.” Her voice rose with each word, her hand tightening around Adora’s arm. “Why, Adora?”

Something very warm and very foreign bloomed in Adora’s chest, momentarily distracting her from Angella’s urgent question. Adora searched her face, blazing and shimmering with her concern and curiosity. Whatever was happening within her… she had to shut it down.

Shaking herself mentally, Adora tried very hard to pull herself back down to reality.

“Uh… I guess I just… I feel like I have to be worthy of She-Ra. Worthy of serving Bright Moon. Worthy of serving you.” Lying had never been Adora’s strong suit so she hadn’t even tried. “If anyone gets hurt… Glimmer getting hurt wasn’t supposed to happen, it should have been me.” Angella’s eyes tightened with some emotion Adora couldn’t finger, and then suddenly the Queen’s arms were around her.

Angella was as soft as she looked, though nowhere near breakable. She smelled like moonlight and lavender, was warmer than a person should be, and as her arms tightened around Adora, well, the soldier could think of no better place to be. Tentatively, Adora wrapped her own arms around Angella’s torso, just beneath her wings. She thought she heard the softest of sighs from her Queen, but she couldn’t be sure.

“Oh Adora,” purred the Queen, and Adora became lost in the way the words sounded in her posh accent. “You have nothing to prove to me.” Tears pricked Adora’s eyes. She’d never been held like this, never been told by an authority figure that she was satisfactory, never felt so at peace. 

But as quick as the moment came, it was gone even faster. 

“Queen Angella!” A guard yelled, rushing around the corner and into the stables. Angella released Adora at once, taking several smooth steps away from her and turning to the guard. 

“Yes?” she asked, her voice back to its formal dignity. Adora felt like she’d just been rudely awoken by someone ripping away her very soft, warm blanket and exposing her to the cool of an Etherian morning. 

“There’s an urgent message from Mystacor, your majesty,” said the guard, who either hadn’t seen their embrace, or was acting like they hadn’t. Adora wasn’t sure if the Queen’s reaction was because the hug had been something secret between them, or just that the Queen preferred her guard to only see the queenly side of her. She was certain that if Angella had been hugging Glimmer, it wouldn’t have been an issue. 

_Don’t go any further,_ a small voice in her head warned her. 

“Very well, I will go to the War Room at once.” A clear dismissal. The guard left, and Angella turned back to Adora. “Please be more careful in the future, Adora,” she said, almost all traces of the affection she’d shown Adora gone, but for a flash in her eyes. Adora shivered, and could only nod. She watched her walk briskly away, noticing for the first time the way her hips swished and how her wings swayed as she walked. 

_Nope._

Adora turned back to Swift Wind, who was still being uncharacteristically silent, staring at Adora with a look of utter confusion.

“What the hell was that all about?” he asked, shaking out his mane and eyeing her with humor in his large eyes. 

Adora just rolled her own, and resumed brushing him, lost in thoughts she knew weren’t going to take her anywhere good. 

* * *

Biting back another torrent of tears, Adora sunk back into her bed and closed her eyes against the memories made painful by loss. Adora would go to Glimmer in the morning, they would talk, maybe they would even fight, but she had to listen. The ever loyal soldier could feel in her bones that she was right, or at least… Maybe she only hoped she was. Would she just continue to hurt the people she loved in pursuit of her selfish desires? 


	3. A Sign

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora asks Glimmer to have the portal researched, and that goes about as well as Adora expects, but she still has hope. Rescue missions are her speciality.

Adora was right. They fought. Glimmer screamed. Bow watched and occasionally tried to throw in his own two coins, but every time was immediately drowned out by Glimmer. Adora wanted them to allocate at least a fraction of the Rebellion’s research team to finding out more about this portal Entrapta and Catra had opened, and if, by some miracle, there was a way to get Angella back and still retain their current reality.

“Why do you even care so much, Adora?” Glimmer asked after they’d both shouted back and forth the same arguments for half an hour. Her voice was tired, hoarse, but still brimming with emotion. Adora lowered her eyes to the ground.

She wasn’t sure how best to respond. Adora didn’t want to make this about her, to bring up the guilt that still kept her up at night, kept her from really enjoying any of the small pleasures life still had to offer. And then… it wasn’t just guilt at not being able to stop Glimmer’s mother from sacrificing herself. It was grief at the loss of Angella herself. 

The way she felt about the Queen was something she tried not to think about at all, but when she inevitably slipped, she lost herself in thoughts of how her rare touch had made Adora feel. How whenever the three of them had gotten back from a mission, Angella appraised her with a look in her eyes that set Adora’s heart beating like a skiff motor. How… though she knew she _should_ think of Angella, her best friend’s mom, as a mother figure, that’s not at all what came to mind when she remembered being held in her arms. 

Shadow Weaver hadn’t given Adora the best example for what a mother should be, how they should treat their daughters, but she was sure that what there was between her and Angella— Adora cringed, struck by the pain _again_ — what there _had been_ between them wasn’t what Glimmer had with her mother. 

But all of this was absolutely forbidden. No truth spell, no amount of torturing or pleading or mind games would ever make her reveal her true feelings. 

“I’m the reason she’s gone,” said Adora, very calmly. She raised her eyes back up to Glimmer. Her face had been pulled tight in anger and frustration, but now it fell in pity. Bow, she could see out of the corner of her eye, was shaking his head.

“ _Catra_ is the reason she’s gone. _She_ had Entrapta build the portal, _she’s_ the one who flipped the switch, even after you warned her how bad it could be.” Glimmer’s voice was pleading, her anger drained as she took a step towards Adora, and put a soft hand on her arm. Bow nodded furiously beside her.

“Adora, you can’t blame yourself for this forever. It’s time to move on,” he said, stepping beside Glimmer and placing his calloused hand on Adora’s shoulder, squeezing lightly. Adora felt tears gather in her eyes, ashamed for so many things, and now for the weight of their pity. 

They just didn’t understand. 

“It should have been me,” she said, just as calmly, and gently pulled out of their grasp. Bow sighed and shook his head, but Glimmer was still looking at her. It seemed like she was warring with herself internally, Adora could almost see little sparkles darting around behind her eyes. Holding her breath, Adora began to hope. But—

“No, Adora. I’m still saying no. We’ve lost too much already. My mother would understand,” she finished, drawing herself up, her words ringing with authority. For a moment, though the decision made her want to scream, Adora was very proud of Glimmer. And she was right, this would have been Angella’s choice, too. But not Adora’s. 

* * *

Adora hadn’t lived in Bright Moon for very long yet, but even she could tell that the castle and it’s people had hardly been so grim. It was like someone had pulled a dark veil over the vibrant life of the place, casting it in shadows, muffling its sounds and smells. Or maybe that’s just how Adora felt when she thought about Glimmer and Bow being trapped in the Fright Zone. It had only been a few hours since she saw their unconscious faces stolen from her on what should have been a very fun and _safe_ evening, but dread had already become her.

Plans raced through her head as she made her way quickly to the War Room where Queen Angella had already been informed of her daughter’s kidnapping. The castle guards had more or less gotten used to her presence over the last several months, no longer eyeing her suspiciously whenever she was on her own. But as she stood outside the War Room, frantically preparing herself to face the Queen, she caught a few glances back and forth between the guards posted outside. Did they blame her, did the Queen? 

Another deep breath. She could do this. 

She opened the doors and stepped inside.

Queen Angella was sitting at the massive table alone. Adora looked around, and noticed no guards were posted inside, which made her nervous. Did she mean to yell at Adora and wanted no witnesses?

Her regal head was bowed into clasped hands, her body drawn in tense and regretful lines. She’d seen Angella worried before, but never had she seen her so… lost. Adora ached to cross to the other side of the table and comfort her Queen.

“Your majesty,” said Adora, letting her guilt bleed into the title, hoping she could tell how sorry she was.

“I should’ve never let her leave this castle.” She spoke with her head still bowed, regret seeping from her words. She looked up, but kept her eyes averted from Adora. “And now, I’m faced with an impossible decision. As leader of the Rebellion, how can I surrender myself to our enemy?” She dipped her head again, apparently struggling to keep her composure. “And yet, as a mother, how do I—” she stopped, choked up, and bowed her head back into her clasped hands.

Adora watched, her heart throbbing. The silence between them was unbearable. Angella was a woman who kept her composer through everything. In the War Room, on the grounds, in her royal duties elsewhere, but she could never quite keep it up when it came to Glimmer. Adora watched as a single tear broke free and slid down the Queen’s angelic face.

Before she even knew what she was doing, Adora was rounding the table and stopping at Angella’s side. She placed a trembling hand on the Queen’s upper arm, not completely in control of herself. Military protocol was more strict than the life she’d been leading in Bright Moon, but she was sure touching the Queen without being invited to do so would have been strictly forbidden, under normal circumstances. Even under the enormous weight of the situation, Adora felt a thrill of… _something_ shoot down her spine as she felt Angella’s soft skin, no barrier like gloves in the way now. 

But Angella stood suddenly, causing Adora’s hand to fall away.

“I’m going to accept Hordak’s terms. Glimmer is all I have.” Angella still wasn’t looking at Adora, and her words stung. But she couldn’t let her personal feelings obscure her focus now; she let her military training take her over.

“You can’t,” she said firmly, and a little desperately. Angella’s eyes finally met Adora’s, but she ignored the fluttering feeling and marched on. “We have no guarantee the Horde will hold up their end of the bargain.” She took another deep breath, trying to exhale all the feelings she had; this was her Queen, she _must_ be protected. “We could end up losing you, too.” _Dammit._ There may have been just a little too much feeling behind her words, but so be it.

Neither woman broke eye contact, allowing the words to settle between them. It seemed to Adora that it stretched on longer than it should have, the air vibrating with unspoken and confusing tension. Angella broke the silence first, looking away again.

“A rescue attempt is too risky,” she said in a small, defeated voice. Adora was suddenly glad nobody else was in the room, she might not have delivered her words in such a vulnerable way. “If we had…” she started, glancing at Adora. “If we had She-Ra, we might have a chance, but without the Sword of Protection…” Angella looked guilty, like she knew how her words would affect Adora. The Queen met her eyes again, an apology in the shimmering pink depths that Adora, wrapped up in worry, confusion, guilt— _I never should have let my sword out of my sight at that_ stupid _party—_ missed. Adora clenched her fists, ready to do anything to prove she could serve the Queen, save Glimmer and Bow, without She-Ra.

“There has to be another way,” she said forcefully. “We can’t just _give up!_ I can rescue them. I know the Fright Zone.” The Queen’s eyes tightened. “I’ll find a way to get them back.”

Angella’s lips parted slightly, but then she closed her eyes for a second, seeming to shove down a reaction.

“And how are you going to do that?” she asked, in a voice that made Adora think that it wasn’t her ability she questioned, but her ability to do it and keep herself _safe_. Angella took a step toward Adora. They were merely a foot apart now. She found it difficult to breathe. 

“I… I don’t know. Yet,” she added, fierce determination building in her voice. “But I’ll think of something, I promise. I’ll bring them home.”

In spite of everything, Angella smiled, a very small smile that barely reached her eyes, but a smile nonetheless. Adora matched it. The Queen reached out slowly and took Adora’s still clenched fist, flattened it out, and just... held it between them. Adora was sure Angella would be able to hear her heart as it drummed in her chest, but if she did she didn’t show it. She was sure her cheeks were reddening, and if she wasn’t mistaken… The glow around Angella seemed warmer as well.

Around her muddled, confused, and very _enraptured_ thoughts, she was half-expecting a guard to burst in here, for Angella to drop her hand and dart away from her— but why? Was this so wrong? Holding the hand of her Queen, the mother of her best friend who’d just been kidnapped? There was no reason to believe this was anything more than Angella treating her as a… but Adora knew as she could barely even think the words that it wasn’t what she wanted it to be. 

As nervous as if she were riding into a battle with an unknown foe, Adora softly, so very slowly, stroked the back of Angella’s hand with her thumb. She felt her freeze, and her eyes darted from their entwined hands to the Queen’s eyes. Before she could properly read whatever emotion was burning there, she dropped Adora’s hand and took a small step back. 

“Thank you, Adora,” she said, her royal voice back to its formal rigidity. “Please let me know what you come up with.” Another subtle dismissal, the Queen was so good at those. Adora nodded, never having moved her eyes from Angella’s, and made a quick bow before rounding the table again and leaving the room. 

Tears stung her eyes before she’d even heard the doors close once again. _Why?_ she thought in anguish, not even forming a full thought, letting the feeling of rejection fill her up. She paused behind a statue in the main hall, and tried very hard to snap herself out of all of this so she could do the impossible and save her best friends from the clutches of the Horde. It didn’t matter what had just happened back in the War Room— Glimmer and Bow, _they_ were what mattered. She wiped the few tears and strode away, determined to rescue the people she loved. 

* * *

It wouldn’t be easy going behind Glimmer’s back to figure any of this out. Could she, in good conscience, involve Bow? Adora decided that she wouldn’t rule it out yet, but couldn’t bring herself to ask him now, so soon after Glimmer’s refusal. She remembered how his face looked when Adora brought up her guilt, the way his eyes pinched and his jaw clenched. Bow loved Adora, had faith in her to move on and really heal… No, she wouldn’t involve him.

But how? She was no scientist, and it had taken Entrapta a while to get the portal right from the little she’d heard while she was in the Fright Zone. If Entrapta had had trouble, there was no way any of Bright Moon’s few scientists could do it alone. Then how…

Adora ambled across the grounds, lost in thought, wrapped up in plans and hairbrained schemes that wouldn’t work, but the action calmed her. Before she knew it, her feet took her to the place she could think the best: her tree in the Whispering Woods. 

She quickly scaled the tree, thinking to herself that she should just add a rope or build steps at this point, the poor tree had healing knife marks all over. After making a whispered promise to her tree friend to do just that tomorrow, she carefully laid down in her nest of branches at the top, and continued to plan. 

Maybe she could sneak into the Fright Zone, convince Entrapta to come back with her, and it would be as easy as that. But of course, it wouldn’t be easy. Not to mention, Entrapta seemed to be very happy with the nearly unlimited resources (and lax restriction on the boundaries of experimentation), so it might be very difficult indeed to convince her. Adora groaned and sat up, frustrated with the lack of options.

“Why did you do it?” she yelled at the sky, disturbing a small family of birds in a neighboring tree. “Why couldn’t you have let me take the stupid sword and close the portal myself?” The sky, unsurprisingly, had no answer. “Remember when I asked for a sign? It was mostly just… something you say. But I think you sent one. I think you sent the same sign to Glimmer. Maybe if… maybe if you sent her another one, she would listen to me. But maybe you don’t want to hurt her anymore…” Adora was just speaking into dead air, where nobody could hear her. “I think it’s worse to have hope but not be able to do anything with that hope.”

Adora’s throat closed. It was foolish to sit here, doing absolutely nothing but make herself sick with grief. She looked up into the blueish-black of the night sky, and once again wished that there were stars up there. She wondered if Angella, wherever she was, could see the stars that were lost to Etheria. She hoped so. 

Just then, the distant sound of some kind of explosion reached Adora’s ears, and she froze, scanning the horizon. _There,_ she saw it. A flash of bright, pale pink light was already dimming. _The Fright Zone._ Adora took this in, let it sit for one second, then jumped recklessly from the tree, transforming into She-Ra in midair to survive the fall, and took off toward Bright Moon. 

_“Thank you,”_ she whispered up to the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Adora, it breaks my heart to have her feel so much guilt all the time. She needs a vacation when this is all said and done.


	4. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora is desperate to get to the Fright Zone, but what will stand in her way this time?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is quite a bit longer than previous chapters, but I think it's worth it!

Adora was a woman of action. Paying no mind to what this might mean in the grand scheme of the universe, getting to the Fright Zone was her priority. She didn’t give a damn what Glimmer was going to say; if she agreed to go, great, Adora was going, _now._ If she refused, fine, _Adora was going now._

She heard the loud whooshing of great feathered wings to her right and nearly ran headlong into a tree— but it was just Swift Wind. Adora paused for a second, a little shocked, but entirely grateful.

“I wasn’t following you, I swear! Well, technically I guess I was, but I just felt that you needed me.”

“Can I get a ride?” Adora asked, desperation clipping her words.

“I’m your horsey, aren’t I?” he said, turning so she could easily jump on. He craned his neck to see her, off put by her non-reaction to his feeble joke. “Everything okay, Adora?”

She had no idea how to respond. 

“Just get us to Bright Moon.”

Through their bond, Swift Wind felt Adora’s urgency, but to Adora’s immense relief, he didn’t ask. The wind whistled past her head piece, chilling her but also clearing her mind. Nothing was going to stand in her way.

“Drop me at Glimmer’s suite,” she said as they neared the castle. “And don’t go too far, we’ve got a much longer journey to make once I talk to her.” He nodded, and hovered above a massive open air terrace as Adora, still in She-Ra form, jumped from his back.

“Glimmer!” She yelled in the direction of her bed. But she wasn’t there. Adora almost growled, impatient, about to storm out of her room to find Bow when—

“Adora?” came a voice in the Queen’s old study. She peeked around the corner, and saw Glimmer curled in an armchair, surrounded by massive volumes of Etherian history and culture. She certainly looked like she’d been asleep, and suddenly Adora wondered what time it was. “What— why are you—?” she sputtered, putting down a book and standing.

“Something happened.” Though she knew she wasn’t staying long, Adora relinquished her eight-foot form so that her and Glimmer were on the same level. 

“The Horde? Why didn’t we hear anything? We’ve got to get Bow—!” she said, making to rush past Adora. 

“No, not— well, it probably is the Horde, but they’re not here, not in Bright Moon.” Adora had no idea how to start. She feared Glimmer would react in the same poor way she had in the morning, but this was different. Adora had been awake, she’d seen it with her own eyes.

“Please explain _before_ I grow wings,” said Glimmer, crossing her arms.

“I was in the Whispering Woods tonight—”

“When are you not?” Glimmer muttered sullenly, but Adora ignored it.

“And I saw… I saw the same light we both saw in the dream. Right over the Fright Zone. There was some kind of explosion, and then a flash of pink light.” Glimmer just stared at her, shaking her head almost imperceptibly.

“I… something woke me up but I wasn’t sure…” Adora was hopeful, this was a _much_ better reaction. 

“It _has_ to be your mom,” she said, grabbing Glimmer’s upper arms. “We have to go, _now._ ”

“Wait, Adora—”

“We can’t just sit here while she could be trapped with _them—”_

“What if it’s a trap? What if Catra is just manipulating you again, like she always does?” Adora’s heart skipped a beat. For just a second, her resolve faltered. But— 

“How could Catra know about our dreams? There’s no way she—”

“What about the spy?” Glimmer asked.

“We don’t know that there even is one for sure yet.” Adora glared at her, why was she trying so hard to find any reason to _not_ go rescue her mother? 

“If they heard us arguing, it would be so easy to use that to get you to walk right into Catra’s claws.” 

The logic of it snaked its way into Adora’s mind, and she let Glimmer go, collapsing into one of the armchairs. She stared at her hands as the bubble of hope she’d had growing in her heart for nearly half an hour popped, showering her with cold, unfeeling, _bitter_ disappointment.

She felt Glimmer’s arms wrap around her, felt her weight as she joined Adora on the armchair. 

“I’m so sorry, Adora.” Glimmer's voice beckoned tears to her eyes, which then soon fell onto her still outstretched, _useless_ hands. 

Even through her Anguish, she realized that Glimmer was so bursting with curiosity that it was tangible. Normally she would have coaxed it out of her; the sooner the better Bow would say. But Adora knew what her question would be, and knew she wouldn't have the strength to resist answering it truthfully. They sat like that for a full minute— a miracle second only to Angella returning— before her restraint broke.

“Why do you _really_ care so much about getting my mom back?” her voice was tentative, gently probing. Glimmer pulled away to look her best friend in the face. Adora’s cheeks burned, betraying her even before her words could, but Glimmer still waited.

“I— love her,” Adora said haltingly, barely able to push the words past her lips. She couldn’t look at her when she’d spoken, but she glanced at Glimmer now. Her lips were parted slightly, but she didn’t exactly look shocked or disgusted. Adora thought she knew why. “But not like… not like you love her.”

“Then… what do you mean?” she asked, but realization was dawning on her face. Not disgust, but something like… betrayal. 

“I don’t really know, Glimmer,” said Adora, wrapping her arms around herself. “Mostly I just try not to think about how I feel at all.” 

“That’s… she was my mom!” said Glimmer.

“I know.”

“She was so much older than you,” she said, and something in her voice made Adora look over at her. Glimmer sighed, causing Adora to raise her eyebrow— it was definitely not a sigh of disgust, but of resignation. Glimmer caught her eye, and then rolled hers. “I’m not stupid, I know what people thought about her, in _that_ way. Besides, only someone really beautiful could create _me._ ” Okay, now there was a definite note of amusement in Glimmer’s voice as she flicked out her hair, emphasizing her words.

“You’re not grossed out?” Adora asked, shocked. 

“Of course I am,” said Glimmer, a small trace of bite in her words. “I understand why you never said anything… but I wish you had, we’re best friends!” she said fiercely. “But it doesn’t matter now. My mom is gone.”

“I still think there’s hope.” _Two kinds of hope, now._

“Adora…” Glimmer sighed, wrapping one arm around her. “Maybe… one day. When the Horde is gone, and Etheria is safe.”

“Not good enough…” Adora said, the defeated feeling taking her over once again, but… No. 

She stood up.

“Adora…” said Glimmer in a warning tone. 

“I’m just tired,” she appeased. But though she was indeed very tired, she had no intention of going to bed. “Please don’t say anything to Bow, you know, about...” she pleaded. 

“No worries, I really don’t want to even think about it,” said Glimmer, shuddering once before getting up herself. “Good night, Adora.” 

She nodded at Glimmer and left the study, thinking, planning. If there was even the smallest chance that it wasn’t a trap, and there was some way to get to Angella, Adora was going to take it. A small part of her felt selfish; if she was captured by the Horde, the Rebellion would no longer have She-Ra. Little else but her devotion to Etheria could have caused her to hesitate now. Only for a second.

Trying to keep up appearances in case anyone was watching her now, she walked briskly to her bed room. When she shut the door behind her, she pulled out her sword, transformed into She-Ra, and sprinted to her terrace, where Swift Wind was already waiting. Admiration for her steed flooded her heart, and once she’d vaulted onto his back, she pet his large neck just how he liked it.

“Let’s go!” she said, pointing to the Fright Zone, and away they went. 

Adora hadn’t seen her old home properly since she was trapped in that alternate reality, and the difference between that, and what she was seeing now, was enough to take her breath away. The Fright Zone had never been a particularly bright and cheerful place, but now it looked downright dystopic. Adora was pretty sure she knew the reason why, and it broke her heart. Catra had always been very good at taking things ten steps too far, and in front of her was evidence that that hadn’t changed.

Swift Wind landed on an outcropping of pipes, metal, and stone that probably had once been a building.

“What’s the plan?” he asked, ready for action.

“I go in alone, and find Angella.” Adora had brought him up to speed on the flight over, and he seemed almost as hesitant as Bow and Glimmer. But he was She-Ra’s steed, and he would follow her anywhere.

“Adora, you’re one person! Let me—”

“No. Nobody else is getting hurt. I go in alone, and you wait out here for my signal, we’ll need to get out of here fast.”

Her plan was very simple, but also seemed a little impossible. She was just assuming they’d managed to get to Angella, and bring her back, but if that wasn’t the case… then Entrapta was coming back with them. Either way, she wasn’t leaving empty-handed.

But where could they be holding Angella? Her first thought was the holding cells, but Angella was a Queen with magic, no matter how far from her Runestone she was. Maybe the Black Garnet chamber where they’d held Glimmer? Catra would get a kick out of that. Adora grit her teeth as she thought of Angella, bound by the Black Garnet’s power as Glimmer had been, trapped, in pain. 

“Okay,” Adora said, taking a deep breath. “I’m going.”

She-Ra wasn’t very inconspicuous, so Adora transformed back to herself, subdued a guard who was taking a smoke break, and stole her armor and helmet.

Nobody paid her any attention as she made her way to the center of it all. She wondered if she shouldn’t stop and try to find a data port, something that would point her in the right direction, but she knew that if Angella were here, it would be top secret. Catra wouldn’t risk losing such a big chip.

So on she continued, until she reached the massive, alien structure that housed all of the most important Horde assets. Angella _had_ to be in there.

Unfortunately, her disguise wouldn’t get her very far, so she ditched it, and snuck in through the ventilation system her and Catra had used when they were kids to wreak havoc. It was a tight fit, she could barely propel herself forward on her stomach, but she was moving. The black Garnet chamber was several floors higher, so she took turns that would lead her right to the main elevator shaft. It was risky, but better than getting caught on the stairs. 

Once she was out, by divine Etherian luck, there was an elevator already there for her to climb onto. She quietly transformed back into She-Ra, and started to climb up the elevator’s cables— _one floor, two floors, three floors…_

*WWRRHHHH*

The elevator was coming! Thinking fast, Adora swung and launched herself to the wall next to a pair of doors. It was a few floors below the Black Garnet chamber, but it was better than the alternative of alerting whoever was in that elevator to her presence. She pried the doors open, quickly made sure nobody was in the hallway, and pushed herself through _right_ before the elevator whooshed behind her.

_So close._

Adora took off, trying to run as quietly as possible. Luck was on her side once again, it seemed there were no patrols near the stairs, which she took four at a time. Hope was filling her heart to bursting. Finally, she made it to the right level, skidding to a stop and trying to remember which way the chamber was from here—

*CRACK*

A whip landed on the side of her face with such a great force that she was sent into the wall. Pain dazed her slightly, but She-Ra was able to withstand such pain. Wheeling around, she froze— _Catra_. 

“Hey, Adora,” she said, cracking her whip and crouching to spring. “I guess you saw my message.” She laughed cruelly. Adora’s heart stopped, hope vanishing. _No._

She took out her sword, and advanced on Catra, screaming. 

“What, don’t feel like talking?” she said, lithely leaping out of the way just as Adora’s sword landed, cutting right into the floor. 

“Where’s Entrapta?” said Adora, turning to face Catra, her sword poised at her throat. Catra smirked. 

“Entrapta? Been a while since anyone’s said that name around here,” she said, grinning. 

“What the hell do you mean?” said Adora, gripping the sword with both hands, backing Catra into the wall with the point. 

“Last time I saw her, she was on a transport, headed to Beast Island,” she said casually, as if that were just a trip down the river. 

And just like that, Adora hit her limit. Screaming, she pulled back the sword to strike with _all_ her might. Catra’s eyes widened, temporarily breaking from her nonchalance, before she once again dodged the swing. Adora was a woman possessed, letting the full power of She-Ra take her over. Her sword would give no mercy, raining blow after blow where just milliseconds before Catra had been. They fought like never before, except perhaps when Adora had been infected with the First One’s virus. Finally, She-Ra landed a blow with the very tip of her sword, sending Catra to the ground. She let out a hiss, and tried to staunch the flow of blood from her abdomen. She-Ra stood over her, sword raised again, eyes burning so blue, it stung Catra’s eyes, causing them to water. 

_Catra crying in Adora’s bunk, nuzzling into Adora—_

Adora came back to herself, and took a step back, lowering her sword. She’d never wanted this, never wanted to really _hurt_ Catra.

“Go ahead, do it already!” yelled Catra, still on the ground, blood still leaking between her fingers. 

“I would never—”

A blast shook the building, it sounded close, maybe on their floor— _pink light._ Forgetting Catra, Adora ran in the direction of the light, already dissipating. It hadn’t been nearly as bright as before, she hadn’t even needed to shield her eyes. She picked up her pace. Alarms began to sound, either Catra or the explosion, it didn’t matter, _she was so close._

The Black Garnet chamber. She didn’t even bother with the keypad, instead thrusting her sword into the door’s seams and prying them apart. Adora grunted with the effort, until the gap was wide enough to see through—

 _Pink hair._ It was _her!_ Adora’s strength surged, and with a yell she pulled the doors apart and ran inside. _Angella._

She was unconscious, and before doing anything else, Adora checked her pulse. _There,_ maybe not as strong as it should have been, but she was alive. Her clothes were dirty and ripped, her hair had lost the lovely pink sheen and was now quite dull. Her skin was pale, nearly white, and covered in a thin layer of sweat. Adora’s heart burst, wanting to scream and cry, but she needed to focus on getting them out.

“Angella?” she said, gently lifting the Queen from the floor, and supporting her weight on her lap. “Angella, please wake up,” she stroked her hair, and then looked around for the first time since she’d entered the room. The Black Garnet was pulsing with light, but not dangerous. Nothing else was in the room, but for the contraption that still restrained Angella by her feet. It was the very same machine they had used on Glimmer, but it was powered off… Had the Queen done that? 

Angella stirred, slowly coming back. The alarms were still sounding, and Adora knew that any minute, guards would burst in here and Adora would hardly be able to get them both out backed into a room like this. Reluctantly, she set Angella back down on the floor, and grabbed her sword. She hacked off the chains binding the Queen to the contraption, hoping she’d have time before they got back to Bright Moon to get the manacles of her ankles. There were angry, red marks on them, as well as on her wrists— _those_ were actually bleeding. Adora felt hot anger shoot down her spine. The Horde would _pay_ for this. 

“Adora?” came Angella’s quiet voice, hoarse and subdued. Adora fell to her side again, and cupped her cheek. Her eyes were open, but unfocused. “You came…I knew...” She was going again, her eyes shutting.

“No, no, no, stay with me, Angella! I’m getting you out of here.” Adora stood, sheathed her sword, and picked Angella up. She was so light, much lighter than she should have been, and another whisper of anger ran through Adora. 

“Hey!” a guard barreled through the mangled door, and froze when they saw She-Ra. Adora grit her teeth and shifted Angella so she could grab her sword. She started toward the guard, until—

“Wait!” they said, and pulled off their helmet. 

“Kyle?” said Adora, heart momentarily squeezing with old memories. 

“Adora, I’m so sorry, but I can’t let you leave.” His voice was shaking as he brandished his stun baton at her. 

“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if you don’t move,” said Adora, taking another step forward. 

“Right… I can’t _let you_ leave, but— one man against She-Ra, especially me, it won’t be a surprise,” he lowered the baton. “Just, not in the face.” Which he covered, trembling from head to foot. Adora blinked, not sure what to do. “Come on! Lonnie and Rogelio will be here any second!”

Grimacing, Adora lunged at him, striking him on the back of his head, just hard enough to knock him out. She cast one remorseful glance at him, sheathed her sword, and started to run. 

_Swift Wind! I’m going to jump out a window, you better be there!_ Adora called out to him, barreling towards the hallway that looked out over the Fright Zone. She cradled Angella to her chest, trying not to jostle her too much. She hadn’t even begun to assemble her feelings yet, but she could feel her heart just waiting to overtake her once the adrenaline was out of her system and they were safe. She felt herself smile at the thought. 

“There she is!” Catra’s voice rang out behind her, and Adora glanced over her shoulder. She was still clutching at her side, but it was bandaged now. An entire unit was advancing towards her, and they had guns. _Swift Wind I’m jumping, get your winged butt over here!_

Gathering her courage, and desperately hoping Swift Wind was very close, she leapt through the window shoulder first, shielding Angella’s head, shattering the window. The terrifying feeling of free fall filled her stomach, heart leaping from her chest—

*WHOOSH* 

Swift Wind flew up to meet them, and Adora landed hard on his back, causing them both to yell out in pain. But then she was laughing.

“Swiftie, you dashing, darling horsey!” She yelled to him, securely gripping his mane and settling Angella in front of her.

“Adora, you’re a maniac! _Never_ do that again!” he said, also laughing. “You got her?” 

“I got her.” A rush of euphoria flowed through her veins, making her feel as though the weight of the universe had been lifted from her shoulders. “Get us out of here!” 

Adora could hear shouting down below, and gunships lifting off. But by the time they got in the air, Swift Wind had already flown them into the Whispering Woods, leaving the Fright Zone well behind them. 

Adora looked down at Angella with a grin, but it faltered— Angella was shaking, her eyes half open.

“Swift, the ground!” He immediately went into a sharp dive, pulling out just as they reached the forest floor. 

She jumped from his back with Angella, and set her gently on the ground. She was having a seizure, Adora thought. She racked her brain for Horde first aid, but seizures weren’t really top priority. All she knew was that there wasn’t much you could do but wait… and putting her on her side! She did that, and waited. It was killing her to watch Angella convulse, and agonizing to be so close to safety just to—

Her body went limp. She was too still. Adora, frantic, checked her pulse. Nothing.

“NO!” she shouted, and started to do chest compressions. _One, two, three—_ “Come on!” _Thirty—_ Adora leaned down, and blew air into Angella’s mouth. Nothing. _One, two, three…_ Over and over again, Adora pressed on, completely forgetting about her own magic, listening for the vital sound of the Queen’s heart.

* * *

Adora painted an angry red slash across the canvas, ruining the work she had done on the buildings of the Fright Zone. It was useless. 

“Art as therapy, yeah right,” she grumbled to herself, staring at the work in progress. Though it was just a rough rendering of the real thing, it still called up memories that made her want to throw her whole palette at the painting, then rip it to shreds, burn it. Just then, however, inspiration struck. Mixing a darker hue, she started working with the bold red line, shaping it to her vision. Instead of the work calming her though, it only fueled her anger, and by the time she set down her brush and took a step back to view it in full, she still wanted to throw a palette at it. 

Shadow weaver and Catra, at least, an abstract version of them, stared back at her over the horizon of the Fright Zone. 

She grabbed the palette, pulled her arm back, and—

There was a soft knock at the door. 

“Yeah?” she called, lowering the palette. The door opened, and Queen Angella peeked inside. “Your Majesty!” she said, snapping to attention, palette still in hand.

“Adora, what are you doing in here? It’s nearly three in the morning,” she said, stepping inside and shutting the door behind her. She was dressed in only a silk robe tied over her nightgown.

“I couldn’t sleep,” she said, looking down as the heat that usually filled her cheeks in the presence of the Queen appeared, flushed even more due to the revealing nature of her night clothes. Lately, she saw the Queen less and less. Adora had the impression that Angella was avoiding her. 

When Adora returned with Glimmer and Bow from the Fright Zone, Angella had been very grateful, but she kept her distance from Adora, though they shared a few glances here and there, always charged, always confusing. When they won the Battle of Brightmoon, she’d beckoned Adora to join her hug with Bow and Glimmer, irresistible tenderness emanating from her. Adora hugged them all, but the hand clutched around Angella’s waist was burning with the contact. The Queen looked down at her, smiling like she never had before, and said, “ _Thank you,”_ sincerity dripping from her words, her eyes blazing. She’d placed a lingering kiss on Adora’s cheek that had set her on fire. 

But every time Adora has seen her since, Angella treated her as just a soldier. As if they hadn’t shared something. As if Adora hadn’t saved her daughter’s life, saved Bright Moon! She was angry about so many things— coming to terms with Shadow Weaver’s manipulation, Catra’s betrayal, Entrapta’s loss and then betrayal— but if she was honest with herself, Adora’s anger at Angella was at the forefront.

“What’s this?” Angella asked, stepping forward and nodding at the painting. 

“It doesn’t matter,” said Adora in monotone, setting the palette down and sitting in one of the nearby fluffy couches. 

“Is it the Fright Zone?” she asked, moving closer. Adora ground her teeth. 

“Why do you care?” she snapped, her voice colored with anger, not caring how disrespectful it sounded. Angella turned to her, shocked. 

The silence between them was so acute, Adora could hear the rustling of the Queen’s wings. They stared at each other, Angella’s face moving from shock, to anger, and then to remorse. Finally, she sat next to Adora. Stubbornly, Adora looked away. Then, she felt a hand softly pull her chin. Angella wasn’t wearing her gloves, and her hands were so very soft… Adora obeyed the pull without a thought.

Angella was sitting very close, uncomfortably close.

“What’s wrong, Adora?” It wasn’t a command, nor was it the way she would have asked Glimmer. But Adora didn’t answer, looking down at her hands, clenched in her lap. Angella removed her hand and sighed.

“I used to be an artist, you know,” she said in a wistful voice, looking back over at Adora’s painting. “Most of my paintings are actually still in here, I believe…” she stood, walking over to the massive cabinets Adora had never opened. “Ah, yes,” she opened one of them, and pulled out a painting of Bright Moon. 

It was glorious. Adora ached looking at it; _of course_ Angella painted that, does she do anything poorly? Adora got up, and walked over to her. Angella chuckled at the reverent look on Adora’s face. 

“It’s alright, but it’s so… stagnant. A copy of real life, nothing more.” 

“But it’s beautiful,” Adora whispered, reaching out as though to touch it, but merely traced in the air the shape of the Moonstone. 

“Want to see my favorite?” Angella asked, sounding… nervous, bashful. Adora had never heard the Queen speak so, and entranced, nodded. Angella walked a ways down, opening doors here and there, shaking her head, until she found it.

 _Transcendent._ It was the only word Adora had to describe it. But the longer she looked, the more she felt a deep, aching loss. A kind she’d never known. She looked up at Angella, who was staring at the painting, her eyes shiny, her lips pursed against tears, Adora would guess. Her beauty was different in this light, more real. Perfection isn’t attainable, but Angella achieved a pretty good imitation. But this… the way her hair fell like a pink, satiny curtain around her angelic, heartbroken face, sadness altering her beyond what Adora could imagine… She was a mirror image of the painting in that moment.

“I painted this when Micah died.” Her voice was a whisper. “I’ve never even shown this to Glimmer,” she said, a tear falling. Adora, without really thinking, took Angella’s hand. 

“I wish I could…” Adora said, trailing off. Could what? Take away her pain? Fix everything? Foolish, there was nothing Adora could say.

“Adora…” said Angella, looking down at their joined hands. She put the painting back, and pulled Adora back to the couch, sitting them both down. “The minute Glimmer snuck you into Bright Moon, I knew I would…” she let out a huff of breath, looking away. Adora’s heart was beating very fast, the Queen’s words had awoken a small, withering bit of hope she’d hid away for safe-keeping, and she was terrified. “Will you tell me more about your painting?” she finally asked, shifting almost imperceptibly closer to Adora.

Confused, but willing to play along, Adora nodded, and started talking. It all began rushing out of her: her life in the Horde, Shadow Weaver, her memories of Catra, her belief that the Rebellion and the Princesses were evil and must be defeated, how she felt when she realized the truth in that village of Thaymor. How Catra looked when she realized Adora wasn’t going back to the Horde. 

“I had no idea… I’m so sorry Adora,” said Angella, wrapping an arm around her, pulling Adora into the crook of her neck. Adora was only wearing her tank top and shorts, so they were touching skin to skin, just enough to make Adora’s heart pick up the pace. Angella’s hand caressed Adora’s arm like butterfly wings. Hesitantly, Adora wrapped her own arm across Angella’s waist, smiling as the Queen let out a very soft, contented sigh. Once again, in the Queen’s arms, Adora felt at peace. And then, contradictorily, her heart wouldn’t slow, and somewhere in her center, she felt a strong pulse. Angella’s other hand came to cup the side of Adora’s face that wasn’t pressed into her neck, and stroked her cheek, so softly. From temple to jaw, across her cheekbone, passing briefly over Adora’s lips.

At this, Adora gasped softly, hotter than ever, the pulsing at her center intensifying. Angella froze, and then, as if to make it seem like she’d meant to do this all along, she slowly extracted herself from Adora.

“We should be off to our beds,” she said, her tone light and casual. “It's nearly morning.” As if to emphasize her words, she yawned. Adora would have rolled her eyes if she weren’t rooted to the couch with pleasure and shock. “Adora?” Her voice was nervous again. Adora wanted so badly to confront what was growing between them directly, but knew if she did, it would only push Angella away. Shaking herself mentally, Adora stood, hoping that her shorts were able to hide the physical evidence of her pleasure.

“Why did you come to this room?” Adora asked, suddenly curious. Glancing at Angella’s face as they walked to the door. She’d asked just the right (or wrong) question, as Angella grimaced. 

“I… felt the need to walk, it _is_ my castle,” she sniffed, and Adora laughed. This coaxed a smile from the Queen.

“Okay, fine, but how did you know I was in here?” Adora pressed, hoping she wasn’t going to hit a wall here. If they hit a wall here… well, there was simply no hope. Angella gave a resigned sigh as they left the room.

“I was looking for you. You weren’t in your room, and Glimmer and Bow were asleep in theirs so I wandered, hoping I would run into you.”

“Oh,” was all she said, letting another wave of pleasure wash over her. Angella was _looking for her_. Specifically. At three o’clock in the morning.

“And then I heard angry muttering coming from the art studio, and I thought, _Who else would be in here at this hour?”_ she said, chuckling and nudging Adora as they walked through the castle’s large hallways. The casual touch stunned her for a moment.

“I thought I was being quiet,” Adora muttered, running a hand over the pouf on her head.

“You were, I just have good hearing,” Angella said, laughing. _Could you hear my heartbeat when you touched me?_ Adora ached to know. But they’d reached Adora’s room.

“Good night, Adora,” said the Queen. Then, looking as though she was hesitating, trying to make a decision, she leaned in, and kissed Adora on the cheek. It felt like the sun was shining directly on Adora, or like she’d just taken off on Swift Wind. She threw caution to the wind, once again taking the Queen’s hand, and kissed the top of her knuckles.

“Good night, Angella,” she said, enjoying the look of pleasure blossoming on her Queen’s face. She let go of her hand, both of them letting the touch linger at the fingertips, before Angella nodded quickly and turned to walk away. Adora watched her go, chuckling softly when she saw angella shake her head and touch the hand Adora had kissed. 

Once she was out of sight, Adora entered her room with a smile the size of the Whispering Woods, and did a wild little dance. She was bursting with happiness, ecstatic at the events of the night, hardly believing what had happened. 

_Hold on,_ said a small voice at the back of her head. _This doesn’t mean anything yet, and how could it ever grow to be anything more?_ Adora frowned slightly, thinking about Glimmer, how she would react. She hadn’t made any mention of her confusing feelings towards the Queen, and never intended to. Glimmer tended to overreact, and as her relationship with Angella was strained as it was, there was no way Adora would ever do anything to make it worse. 

And it was presumptuous of her to believe from one night that… she felt foolish even thinking about it that way. So they had cuddled for a few minutes. So Angella had touched her lips, like she’d touched the rest of Adora’s face. So she’d kissed Adora goodnight… Every strand of her DNA wanted this. It was confusing, then, to also _not_ want it. 

Adora sighed as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, imagining how Angella’s lips would feel on her own…

* * *

Pulling her lips away from the Queen’s, Adora listened hard. There was something— she held her breath, stilling herself and willing everything but the woman beneath her to still so she could hear… a faint heart beat, growing louder with each second. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I hoped you enjoyed it! Season 5 is coming out tomorrow, so it may be a little while before I update again, or not, I guess it depends on how I feel about the the end... Can't believe it's ending. Either way, I *will* be updating, I'm way too invested to stop here. 
> 
> Big, huge shout out to Noelle Stevenson for these characters and this story! Good luck everyone, hope your ships become canon!!


	5. Resistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora did the impossible, but what does Angella's return mean for them?

_Thu-Thump. Thu-Thump_ . There was nothing in the universe more important to Adora in that moment than the faint sounds of Angella’s heart starting again. She cried, gathering the beautiful woman in her arms and holding her as tight as she dared. For the first time in a year, maybe even longer, Adora felt whole. _Thank Etheria…_

Swift Wind neighed softly, nudging Adora and gesturing to where the Fright Zone jutted out from the horizon. Faint sounds of gunship and skiff engines were beginning to reach them. Wiping her tears, Adora rose, still cradling Angella, and jumped onto Swift Wind’s back. He took off without a word. 

Adora looked down at her Queen. She looked so tired and fragile, like her lifeforce had been drained, leaching the color from her skin and hair, and from what Adora remembered from the brief time they’d been open, leached from her eyes as well. How much of this was from the Horde, and how much was from being trapped between realities? 

Hesitantly, but unable to restrain herself after missing her all this time, Adora began gently caressing Angella’s cheek. She was in the middle of imagining the look on Glimmer’s face as Swift Wind flew in with them on his back, when Angella’s eyes opened. They were focused, clear, and almost colorless. 

“Adora,” she breathed, a smile transforming her face into a sunrise that warmed Adora’s heart, making _everything_ worth it. 

“You’re safe, we’re going back to Bright Moon, Glimmer will be so happy—” Adora stopped when Angella reached up to her face, a motion that seemed to take a large amount of effort, and cupped Adora’s cheek. 

They were the only two people who existed. The sun rising in the distance bathed Angella in a soft golden light, and Adora began to cry, blinking away the tears so they wouldn’t cloud her vision. She never wanted to look away. Angella began to cry, too, and Adora, wanting to hug her closer but not wanting to break their gaze, settled for wiping away the Queen’s tears as they fell. There was so much that needed to be said, but for now, they were both content to relish in this time they had together before everything changed.

When Bright Moon came into view on the Horizon, Adora finally had to look away. Guards were in formation at the mouth of the bridge, and two little dots were pacing by the Moonstone. Despite her Euphoria at having saved Angella, she felt anxiety bubbling in the pit of her stomach. 

“Glimmer,” said Angella, also looking away from Adora and towards the runestone. “I suppose… she was made Queen?” she asked, a hint of pride and wonder in her low, hoarse voice. 

“Yes, in your… absence.” Adora felt slightly awkward, not wanting to make Angella relive anything yet. But Angella slowly looked back at her.

“How long was I gone?” Shock replaced the anxiety momentarily, as Adora whipped her head back to her Queen.

“You don’t know?” she asked, not sure if this was the time and place for any hard truths.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Adora. Time didn’t really exist wherever I was… but it felt like centuries. Or it could have been days. How long?” 

“Almost a year.” Pain flitted across Angella’s face as she turned back to Bright Moon. Adora instinctively tightened her arms around her, but suddenly there was tension. Angella pursed her lips, looking very much like she often had after Adora first came to Bright Moon. 

With the Moonstone so close now, Adora could finally make out Bow and Glimmer, waiting beneath it. Adora could feel the heat of Glimmer’s anger from here. Angella tried to sit up properly, but hissed in pain. 

“Angella, you shouldn’t try to—” 

“Can’t this horse go any faster?” she said, her voice now colored with impatience, trying her best to move out of Adora’s arms despite her obvious pain and discomfort. Adora was suddenly filled with a heavy sense of foreboding. 

“This horse,” said Swift Wind, turning his head to look at them with a smirk. “Is going as fast as he can. And we’re here.” He landed on the far edge of the platform across from Glimmer and Bow, who ran over to them. Adora got down still holding Angella, who immediately tried to stand. 

“Adora? MOM!” Glimmer froze five feet from them, watching as Angella started to fall, grimacing and clutching her middle. 

Glimmer teleported to catch her, and then sat down on the floor, sobbing as they embraced. 

“Oh Glimmer, my sweet, sweet girl,” said the Queen, stroking Glimmer’s hair in a motion that was still making her wince. But she was still smiling. Her wings rustled lightly, but Adora was certain she wouldn’t be able to extend them to envelop her daughter until she got her strength back. Bow looked at Adora, eyes wide in shock, his lips starting to form an enormous grin, and then looked back at Angella. Within seconds, he was nearly bouncing with excitement, looking ready to tackle the two women. 

“Oh, come here, Bow,” said Angella, weakly beckoning him to join them. Adora stood next to Swift Wind, feeling like a piece of ice was lodged somewhere in her body which overall felt quite warm. Before she could examine the feeling or the reasons for it closer, Adora turned to Swift Wind.

“Thank you, Swiftie. You were amazing.” She patted his long face, trying to infuse her voice with the happiness she knew she should be feeling. But the piece of ice, instead of melting, was beginning to freeze her insides. 

“Anytime, sacred bond buddy! Maybe as a reward to me for doing so spectacularly, we can do loop-de-loops later!” he said, throwing his mane back and looking very pleased with himself.

“Sure buddy, whatever you want.” He winked and then took off to go enjoy a well-earned nap. Leaving Adora to stand by herself. 

Glimmer finally looked up at her, eyes still swimming with tears, and held her hand out. Adora hesitated, but knelt on the other side of the pile with Bow and Glimmer so she wouldn’t be touching Angella, and hugged them. The piece of ice was temporarily melted as Glimmer’s arm squeezed Adora as tight as she could. Adora had closed her eyes, but upon feeling someone looking at her, she opened them to find Angella’s eyes on her, filled with an emotion that scared the hell out of Adora even if she couldn’t name it. She shut her eyes again, hugging Bow and Glimmer like someone would a life preserver. 

* * *

“She won’t talk to me about it,” said Glimmer, as she walked into Adora’s room with Bow in tow. Though of course she was probably filled with relief, love, and happiness, Adora guessed that none of that could overpower her base instinct to be annoyed with her mother.

“She just needs time, I can’t even imagine how terrifying the space between dimensions must be,” said Bow, shuddering.

“Yeah, but still.” Glimmer’s voice was stubborn, but she was smiling still. Adora hadn’t seen her smile so much since before the portal. 

Adora had been sketching the soft face of sunrise Angella had worn after her rescue when she heard the two of them coming down the hallway. She'd flipped the book over, but hadn’t managed to get it under her pillow in time. 

“Ooh, another Adora drawing!” said Bow, reaching to grab it. Glimmer met Adora’s panicked eyes, and teleported to stop him.

“Hey!” he protested, laughing. But he quickly stopped at the look on their two faces. “What?” 

“Nothing!” said Glimmer. She had apparently been able to guess what the drawing might have been. “Adora’s been— uh— working on your birthday present!” Adora felt her eyebrows shoot up, but worked quickly to arrange her face into bashful agreement, and nodded. 

“Awww, Adora,” he said, his eyes getting big. Glimmer glanced back at Adora, with an expression that said, very clearly, _We will talk about this later._ Adora looked down, wanting to disappear.

It had only been a few days, but Adora was already growing tired of the feeling that had enveloped her when Angella had looked at her over Glimmer’s shoulder. She’d been teleported by Glimmer into her old chambers, where the best healers in Bright Moon converged, trying to figure out how best to help her. Adora kept her distance, but watched as their faces grew confused when none of their methods, magical or medicinal, seemed to make any difference. After hours of this, Angella had looked up and spotted Adora standing just outside the room. Her lips pursed and she told everyone to leave her so she could get some rest. 

But no matter how her behavior was making Adora feel, nothing could extinguish her sense that almost everything was right with the world with Angella back. Though she’d obviously suffered, she could heal. Glimmer could have her mother back, and work on repairing their relationship. And… though Adora tried to push out the thought whenever it struck her, she could spend time with Angella. She couldn’t keep Adora out forever, eventually they would speak. They had all the time in the world, or at least, as long as Adora had left on it. 

Glimmer sat down on Adora’s bed, and fell back onto the thin, hard mattress.

“Ugh, Adora, I don’t know how you sleep on this,” she muttered as she massaged the back of her head. Adora smirked, shoving Glimmer with the tip of her foot. Bow launched himself onto the bed between them, and sounded like he’d had all the air knocked out of him. 

“Yeah Adora, maybe we oughta get you into someone else’s bed so you can see the light,” he said innocently, but causing Adora’s mind to make the chasmic leap to Angella, the image of sharing her bed was _too much_ — she gasped softly, unable to restrain her reaction. She seemed to be slipping more often lately, barely able to keep her thoughts from straying to the former Queen every few minutes. Glimmer sat up to look at her, no doubt reading the guilt in her grimace. A small trace of disgust pulled at her best friend’s lip. 

“Well, we already know she doesn’t like mine,” she said, laying back down. Adora shrugged, pushing away all thoughts of Angella’s bed. Glimmer talked for a while, about what Angella being back would mean for the kingdom, for her, and how Castaspella was coming with Mystacor’s best sorcerers to help try to heal her mother.

“Adora?” said Glimmer, sitting up again. Adora looked up at her, stilling her fidgeting fingers. “I haven’t really thanked you yet, for disobeying me and rescuing my mom.” Bow sat up, too, looking back and forth between them. Adora waited. Glimmer looked like she didn’t want to say what she was thinking, but Adora was pretty sure she knew. Reaching out, she grabbed Glimmer’s hand.

“You don’t have to thank me, Glimmer,” she said, smiling. “You were being a Queen, thinking of what was best for the Kingdom.”

“But… I should have believed you.” Bow put his hand on her shoulder.

“Come on, we all thought Adora was crazy,” he said, in a joking tone, trying to defuse the sudden tension of the room. 

“She’s back. That’s all that matters now,” said Adora, squeezing Glimmer’s hand. They locked eyes, and Adora tried to communicate to her that she had nothing to worry about, but she wasn’t sure Glimmer got the message. 

* * *

Adora warred with herself at the end of the first week of Angella being back home. She knew very well that there was no way she’d be able to push down her feelings forever, and that she wasn’t one to let go of things, to move on. It would simmer beneath the surface, waiting to reach the boiling point, and Adora shuddered to think what would happen when it did. What she needed was to be able to speak about it with someone. Preferably, Angella, to figure out... one way or the other... She knew she hadn’t imagined their connection, though she was still very confused on what it was, exactly. But that was absolutely out of the question. She wouldn’t jeopardize her life here in Bright Moon, her friendship with Glimmer, the chance for the Rebellion to succeed— all because she had a _crush._

But it wasn’t a crush, Adora knew. What it was, she had no idea. Untouchable, unthinkable, forbidden. That’s what it was, what it had to be. Thinking otherwise… was a distraction. Adora couldn’t ignore how she missed Angella, though. If all she wanted to do was talk to her, about her time between realities, about Glimmer, the Rebellion, surely that was allowed? 

After Glimmer left her mother’s side for the night and returned to her bedroom, Adora quietly left her room. It was late, nearly everyone in the castle had retired hours ago, so only the guards were in the hallways. She tried to act natural and not look as guilty as she felt, but she couldn’t help feeling like every guard she passed was eyeing her suspiciously. When she finally arrived at the massive double doors of Angella’s chambers, she stopped, looking at the guards there. 

“I’m here to see the Qu—” she stopped, huffing internally. Her and Glimmer needed to figure out what damn titles everyone was going to use, Adora was tired of questioning it. Angella would always be a Queen to her, but royal protocol was something she was not well-versed in. “The former Queen, Angella,” she managed to finish, standing up straighter, holding her chin up. 

The two guards looked at each other, and then back at Adora. Surely Angella hadn’t forbidden Adora? Her heart sank in the awkward silence.

“Actually, ma’am, she’s not here.”

“What? Where is she?” Adora was surprised, Glimmer hadn’t mentioned that she was feeling well enough to move around.

“The library, ma’am,” said the guard, reluctantly, clearly not wanting to tell Adora, but she was also She-Ra. “She… wanted to be left alone.” 

“Alright, thank you.” Turning from the guards, Adora examined her options. She wouldn’t find a better time to find Angella alone than this. But if she wanted to remain alone… She hadn’t seemed thrilled to be in Adora’s presence any of the times they’d seen each other in the last week. As doubt clouded her mind, a small point of light shot through when she remembered their flight back to Bright Moon, the last time they’d actually been alone. Well, except for Swift Wind. 

Decided, Adora went to the library. It had an entire wing of the castle to itself, filled with more books than Adora could even imagine. Part of her wished she enjoyed reading so she could sit among the smell of parchment and the rustling sound of turning pages, but she never could remain still long enough to get through a book, a fact which annoyed Glimmer but caused Bow to high-five her for. Adora knew the Queen loved to read, and spent much of her downtime there. At least she’d be somewhere comfortable when Adora showed up, unwanted, uninvited…

 _Just knock already._ Adora was standing in front of the ornate purple doors, hesitating. No guard was posted, which should have calmed her, but instead it made her more nervous. She took a deep breath, and knocked. Silence. She waited for a few seconds, and steeling herself, opened the door. 

A few candles were lit, but the overwhelming space of the room was largely filled with darkness. The curtains must have all been pulled closed. She didn’t spot Angella right away, so she stepped inside and shut the door behind her. Adora grabbed a magical torch to light her way, and wandered around, wondering where Angella could be. Not between the outrageously tall stacks, nor lounging in one of the many squashy armchairs. She made her way to the back where the studies were, but nothing. There was a second floor, she knew, but had never been there. 

“Angella,” she called out quietly, as she ascended a spiral staircase. Adora gasped as her torch light fell on books that had fallen on the floor and left there, pages splayed out, ripped. She waved her torch around searching for— for a body, or something, but nothing was there. Just a candle that was burning low, casting flickering shadows on the scene. Adora pressed on. Then she heard something.

Someone was crying, and even if she hadn’t known Angella to be the only person here, she would have recognized the sound. She hurried forward, searching. There was light coming in, perhaps Angella had opened the curtains? But as she neared the light, she felt a soft summer breeze.

A terrace. Angella. She was perched on the edge of a long couch that was bathed in moonlight, hunched over, shoulders shaking. Adora’s heart gave a violent tug.

“Angella,” she said, setting her torch in a bracket inside before dashing out. She started, looking up as Adora approached. 

“Oh, Adora, I apologize,” she said, wiping her eyes and rising unsteadily to her feet. She was wearing a floaty, translucent purple cloak over a simple white bodysuit, which Adora’s eyes briefly flashed over in appreciation. “I was just leaving.” She started to walk past Adora, but was apparently still quite weak, and stumbled. Adora caught her automatically, and Angella reacted as though her touch stung, pulling away and keeping her eyes averted. 

There was awkwardness between them as they both just stood there. Finally, Angella sat back down, pulling her cloak tighter around her as the breeze shifted. Adora chose an armchair opposite her, examining her face closely. Her eyes were very red, and her color had not improved very much, though the Etherian moons did cast most things in a pale light. But Adora had seen the queen in moonlight before, and it had only enhanced her beauty then. 

“Please talk to me,” Adora whispered fervently. Angella closed her eyes and drew in slow breaths. 

“About what, Adora?” she asked, opening her eyes and casting her guarded gaze onto Adora.

“About anything,” she whispered, desperate not only for her words, but for Angella to look at her with anything but that look that so unsettled Adora. She wished she could go back to when things were easier, when Angella was just starting to warm up to her, when things _made sense._

But she just looked away into the horizon.

“Glimmer says you won’t talk about it with her.” Barely a twitch. Adora wondered how hard Angella was fighting to retain her composure... and how far she was willing to go to get a reaction out of the former Queen.

“What I do and do not discuss with my daughter is none of your business.” Her words were calm, but underneath was a barely contained pool of anger, pain. Adora flinched, but knew that she probably wasn’t going to get another chance like this.

“Would you discuss it with me?” asked Adora just as calmly, her eyes never leaving Angella’s paling face. There it was, a crack almost invisible in the stone resolve of the former Queen. Adora waited patiently now, sure that Angella was going to speak to her.

But instead, Angella rose almost fluidly, and walked to the smooth stone balustrade as gracefully as she was able— Adora knew how much the action probably sapped from her energy, and she’d done it to get away from her. Silhouetted against the night sky with her head raised to the moons above, Angella was heartbreakingly beautiful. Her slender frame and elegant wings were drinking in the moonlight, basking in it as one would have done in the sun. Adora couldn’t tear her eyes from the sight however much it hurt.

She couldn’t leave without trying one last time. 

Rising, Adora slowly walked around the side of Angella, so she’d know Adora was coming, and placed her hands on the balustrade, nearly five feet from her. She didn’t want to stop looking at Angella, but she was looking up at the moons with such devotion that Adora looked up at them, too. 

“I missed this more than I will ever be able to explain,” Angella said softly, caressing the cool stone between them with just her finger tips. Adora suddenly felt a rush of bliss at the much delayed thought that Angella was speaking only for her to hear. Their conversations had always been just for them, as Adora was certain Angella didn’t have anyone like Adora had Glimmer and Bow, and Adora hadn’t told them of the times she and the former Queen had spent together. This was theirs, Angella’s words were hers, and hers alone. The moons could no longer hold Adora’s gaze, but she tried very hard to make it look like she was still looking up at them. “Thank you,” said Angella, her voice so low but so impassioned that Adora could no longer pretend to not be looking at her. Maybe it was a trick of the moonlight, but her eyes seemed to have become more vibrant, the dusty pink standing out against her still pale skin.

Angella met her eyes for one brief moment that seemed to last an eternity to Adora. It was on track to burn away that unsure, unsettled feeling she’d been shouldering for days, until—

“I would like to be alone now, Adora,” she said, turning her face away, but not back up at the moons. Adora’s heart plummeted, but the piece of hope that had survived inside it all this time still remained resilient to no apparent end. 

“Your majesty,” said Adora with all the warmth she could fit into the four syllables, bowing and turning away to leave. If Adora had looked over her shoulder, she would have seen the Queen looking over hers, eyes blazing with regret. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this after watching season 5... oof. I'm still smiling and tearing up about it. Thank you to everyone who has left kudos or commented so far, it helps give me the strength to keep going even though Noelle Stevenson is a goddess of writing lol.


	6. To Hold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angella is doing her best to ignore Adora, who considers alternate ways of speaking to her.

_Dear Angella,_

_It feels weird to write to you like this, when you live five doors down from me, but I feel like I have to. We used to talk to each other, and lean on each other, but now it feels like you kinda wish I didn’t exist. I know you’re struggling, and I want to help! I want to be there for you, because we all need someone, you more than anyone right now, but I can’t do that when you don’t even look at me when we’re in the same room. If you want, you can just write back to me instead of talking. It’ll be a little strange, but you won’t have to be near me. We don’t even have to talk about that, I just want to be friends again. Because I think we were before, and I miss that. I miss you. No matter what though, I’m just really glad you’re back. Anyways, I hope you’re feeling better._

_Sincerely,_

_Adora_

Adora finished writing, reread the letter once, and crumpled the embarrassing thing into a tiny ball before throwing it as hard as she could into the wastepaper basket near the shared bathroom. It missed, but she’d pick it up later— the only thing she wanted to do was curl up into an equally tiny ball on her bed and _forget._ To be so small that she was no longer on this plane of reality, popping out of existence, not to bother anyone ever again. 

But she was She-Ra, and duty always called. And she _always_ answered. It was the one part of her life that she had no doubts about. Her destiny was to be Etheria’s savior, and if that was the only thing she could be, that was okay. 

Though Adora tried as hard as she could not to let her thoughts wander to the former Queen, it was difficult, and not just because she felt unspoken— unspeakable— things for her. Angella wasn’t getting any better, still barely strong enough to walk around, still pale, except for her eyes— Adora’s own hadn’t been lying to her the last time they’d actually talked. Glimmer was becoming more and more worried as a week turned into two, and then a month had passed with no improvement. How could Angella _not_ be on Adora’s mind? It was a lucky thing that Glimmer had been so distracted that they hadn’t been able to talk about Adora’s confession. At this rate though, it would never matter… Adora had tried several times to talk to Angella, but there was always an excuse, or one word answers, or worst of all, cold silence. Adora had almost given up, but she wasn’t quite ready yet.

A knock interrupted her thoughts. Jumping up and smoothing back her hair, Adora called for them to enter. It was the General. 

“You’re needed in the War Room, Queen Glimmer is ordering an attack on a Horde camp near Salineas.”

* * *

Glimmer stayed behind again while Adora and Bow led the princesses in the attack. It went very well, as smoothly as a battle could go. Which is why Bow looked sideways at Adora, who was feeling like even She-Ra wasn’t as much of a distraction as she used to be, kicking at rocks and frowning as they were picking through the camp, looking for anything useful or interesting.

“Is everything okay, Adora?” he asked, taking off his fancy new goggles. 

“Yeah, why wouldn’t everything be okay?” she scoffed, waving her hand and leaning down to pick up a Horde soldier’s helmet for something to do. She stared unseeingly into the eye covering, willing Bow to drop the subject with no real hope. 

“I don’t know…” he said, sounding a lot more like he _did_ know but didn’t want to say it. Adora sighed.

“Spit it out,” she said in a bored, unconcerned voice, anything but. It was only forestalling the inevitable not to say it. 

“Well, you’ve been so quiet since you came back with Angella, and,” he said, stopping and spinning to face her with his hands on his hips. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed the weird looks you and Glimmer give each other whenever she gets brought up!” Adora winced, wishing a forgotten Horde soldier would come out from behind a pile of rubble and attack them so she didn’t have to answer.

The thing was, she was desperate to talk about it with someone. Bow was kind and generous, he might initially think it was strange, but if he knew how much it had twisted Adora up on the inside, he would understand, even offer to help. But Adora couldn’t risk one more person knowing how she felt, Glimmer was bad enough. 

“We, uh, we’re just really worried about her. I want to find Entrapta, since she built the portal and might know what’s going on with her mom, but Glimmer doesn’t want to risk a trip to Beast Island.” All true, actually, but still a lie of omission. And judging by the suspicious look on Bow’s face it hadn’t been truth enough. 

They stayed the night in Mermista’s palace, and left the following afternoon on Swift Wind, the other princesses assuring them they’d be back in a few days. Adora wished she could stay, but she also didn’t like being so far from Angella in case something happened. 

Once they arrived at sunset and reported a successful mission, Glimmer dragged her off into the spare bedroom, making it feel like a holding cell again. Bow looked on in surprise, but didn’t step in or follow. It was a bad sign when Glimmer was too mad to remember she could now easily teleport any time she wanted.

“Ouch! Glimmer, what the hell?” Glimmer slammed the door behind them before letting go of Adora’s arm and facing her. 

“What did you say to my mom before you and Bow left?” she demanded, pink energy building up around her.

“Nothing! I haven’t talked to her in… in weeks,” she finished dejectedly. But Glimmer clearly didn’t believe her. 

“I went to visit her this morning, but she wouldn’t talk to me! It looked like she’d been crying all night, and the color that came back in her eyes is gone now.” Glimmer began in a yell, but finished nearing a whisper, sitting down on a pouf, still glaring at Adora. But Adora just stared back at her in shock and despair. 

“Glimmer, I didn’t say anything to her, I swear.” It looked like Glimmer finally believed her, but now she was left with worry and confusion. What _had_ happened?

“Maybe you _should_ talk to her.” The words had been in Glimmer’s voice, and her mouth had moved, and yet Adora couldn’t believe she’d said them. She bit her lip as she watched Adora’s face start to burn with anger. 

“If she wanted to talk to me, she would! I’ve tried so many times and she’s brushed me off every single one.” Adora’s voice was quavering, betraying the depth of her feelings. “I just wish I knew _why_ she’s treating me like this… I’ve never said _anything_ about how I feel, a-about her.” Tears were beginning to build, but she blinked them away, very aware of Glimmer watching her.

“Adora…” murmured Glimmer, getting up and hugging her. “I’m sorry you’re in pain… But maybe,” she said, pulling back. “Maybe this is for the best?” Adora felt as her face crumpled. Glimmer was probably right, but that didn’t stop her from feeling like she wanted to slap her. But she didn’t. Adora dried her tears, pulled her face back together, and thanked her best friend. She needed a release, desperately.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, Adora was in a tank top and shorts, throwing her fists into a punching bag magically suspended in the air of the training room. With every punch, she imagined Glimmer’s face, then her own feelings, even throwing in Catra for good measure— all of this was really her fault anyways, maybe if she hadn’t pulled that stupid lever— she pummeled the bag with everything she had. Sweat poured down her face and her hair came out of her ponytail, but she didn’t stop. Her muscles ached and her knuckles were beginning to bleed, but she didn’t stop. Unbidden as always, Angella’s face, pale but still so beautiful, popped into her head just before she threw another violent punch— she stopped her torrent, leaning into the bag and beginning to cry.

She felt familiar, soft arms around her and the faint smell of lavender as she was practically dragged away, and to the ground. Leaning into the embrace for a moment, Adora’s heart found a little peace, but when she opened her tear-filled eyes and saw Angella’s face, she pushed to be free. She was already weak, and the shock of Adora fighting to get away made it easy to free herself from Angella’s arms and stand up. Angella was kneeling on the floor, arms still partially outstretched, dressed only in her night clothes as Adora stared down at her. She shook so hard it was difficult to remain standing still. 

For a minute, neither woman said anything. Adora was swallowing back words she wanted to shout as she looked into the former Queen’s eyes. Glimmer was right, they were back to the pale color they’d been when she rescued her from the Horde. This fact shifted her anger… towards herself. She dropped to her knees. How could she have pushed Angella away like that, knowing— 

Angella had pulled something from a pocket in her nightgown, and was holding it out to Adora wordlessly. Her face was almost unreadable, but for a small tremor in her lips. Adora’s stomach dropped— it was a crumpled piece of paper. She took it in shaking hands and flipped it over to see her own handwriting. 

“I found it slipped under my door last night,” said Angella, her voice light on the surface, an ocean below. “I thought you had—”

“I wasn’t here last night, we were still in Salineas,” Adora whispered as she stared at the letter, hot panic turning everything fuzzy, making her feel like she was in a dream. She tucked her loose hair back behind her ears. _How did she get this?_

“Adora, I’m so sorry for—” Angella’s voice was breaking and Adora looked up, aching to reach out despite her bitterness towards her. “For making you feel this way. For being so selfish. You’re right, I don’t really have anyone.” Angella wasn’t quite meeting her eyes, every word looking as though it cost her something great to say. 

“What about Glimmer? She’s been worried sick—”

“I don’t want to put this weight on my daughter.” Angella finally met her eyes, her fingertips brushing Adora’s forearm, setting the skin there alight. 

“But you’ll put it on me?” she asked, knowing her words sounded accusatory, but willing the hope in her voice to be louder than that. She finally reached out and took one of Angella’s outstretched hands. 

“If you’re offering.” She smiled, and as she did, Adora watched as color spilled back into her eyes! She gasped, grinning. Angella must have taken it to be an agreement, because she pulled Adora back into her arms, wrapping them tightly around her shoulders. Adora tucked her face into the soft skin of her neck, not caring that she was still sweaty, and wrapped her own arms around Angella’s waist, smiling as she felt feathers brush against the backs of her fingers. Goosebumps trailed up her arms as she felt fingers entwine in her hair, brushing her scalp, a sensation she’d never felt before like this, so softly… Heat pulsed between Adora’s legs, almost causing her to whimper with a desire that she had rarely felt. Her cheeks flushed, embarrassed beyond belief but unwilling to pull away from the Queen now. Adora needed to pull herself together, no reason for this… need— if only Angella would stop— she bit down hard on the side of her cheek until the ache abated.

They remained like that for a little while, and Adora sincerely hoped nobody was planning on training after dinner. Listening to Angella’s heartbeat, more soothing than any Mystacor spa, had melted away her other worries.

“If you didn’t slip the letter under my door, then who did?” asked Angella as she began to pull away slowly, untangling her fingers from Adora’s hair. And now her worries were back. 

“I don’t know… maybe a guard?” she said hopefully. Guards were sworn to the Queen, once Angella and now Glimmer, they would keep their secrets. But Angella, Adora saw as she pulled away as well, didn’t look convinced. 

“They would have knocked.” It was probably true. This worried her, and she pocketed the letter before it could get forgotten there, too. It wasn’t Glimmer, she’d been too genuinely angry at Adora while only just _thinking_ Adora had said something to her mother. And it wasn’t Bow, because he was with her. A thought struck her that was so repulsive she wanted to gag.

“What is it?” Angella asked, stroking her arm. 

“Shadow Weaver.” Adora flinched, but watched, fascinated, as Angella’s eyes filled with fire.

“I’ll deal with her,” she said between gritted teeth, tightening her grip on Adora. Filled with pleasure at the former Queen’s anger at Shadow Weaver, Adora smiled. And then her stomach growled; she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat,” said Angella. Adora stood, and helped Angella to her feet. Then she gasped, seizing both of Adora’s hands.

“Adora! What have you done?” she asked, gently examining Adora’s bruised and bloody knuckles. She blushed, remembering her anger. “I saw you punching, but I didn’t think… oh darling, I’m so sorry.” Warmth filled Adora’s chest at the use of the endearment, and at the blush beginning to color Angella’s pale cheeks as well.

“I’ve had worse,” she said, shrugging but secretly very pleased at Angella’s concern with her very minor injury. 

“You’ll come have dinner with me in my chambers and one of my many _useful_ healers from Mystacor can patch them right up,” she said, sarcasm making a very rare appearance in her tone. Adora let out a surprised laugh.

“If they’re so _useful,_ ” started Adora, using the same amount of sarcasm, “What makes you think they’ll be able to handle a couple of cuts?” 

They both laughed as they left the room, Angella supporting herself ever so slightly on Adora, who was feeling happier than she’d felt in a month.

In all the time she’d spent living in the castle, Adora had never actually been inside Angella’s chambers. She’d always stood just outside to check up on her since her return. Her eyes darted from floor to ceiling, taking in every piece of art, every book, every fragment of evidence that Angella really lived here. There were things that Adora expected, like gauzy curtains and elaborate outfits draped over chairs and partitions, but there were also others that she didn’t expect, like pieces of tech scattered about and a few weapons hanging from a portion of the wall. Adora knew people in Bright Moon, or really anyone outside the Horde with the means, usually accumulated _things_ and displayed them as an expression of identity, but this, Angella’s bedroom, was so personal to her that Adora felt like she was trespassing.

Angella caught the look on her face as she took everything in and chuckled. It was a soft, indulgent sound that stole Adora’s full attention. They met eyes again and shared in a brief moment of connection, before a healer walked in unannounced.

“Queen Angella,” they said, walking up to her, excitement in their eyes. “You’re looking better.” Angella smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She motioned to Adora.

“Yes, I feel better, but I called for you to attend to Adora.” The healer looked confused, but turned their attention to Adora instead. While they worked, Angella summoned a guard to fetch them a dinner cart, and Adora tried very hard to keep eyes off Angella’s massive bed, determined to remain sane. Despite Angella’s earlier mocking, the healer was quite efficient, and within minutes, Adora’s knuckles had been almost fully healed, only slight bruising remained. 

“Thank you,” she said, flexing her fingers and smiling at the healer. They only nodded, bowed to Angella, and left the room. “So… Queen Angella?” She looked up from her hands and gave a small smirk.

“I thought it best for Glimmer to retain the duties and title of Queen, but she insisted I should also still be called Queen.” Angella closed the space between them and gently took Adora’s hands in her own, examining them carefully. “It feels strange, but…” she hesitated, blushing slightly. “It’s nice, to still have this familiarity.” She dropped Adora’s hands and walked to her closet, pulling on a thin purple robe over her nightgown. 

“So, what should _I_ call you?” said Adora. This had always been a thought that pecked at her brain, but asking it felt like admitting that the two of them had a relationship beyond a Queen and her soldier. 

“You’ve been informal with me already, Adora,” she breathed, returning to where Adora sat on a large pouf, and claiming the small puffy couch opposite her. “I think I prefer that. We’re friends, right?” Adora had never seen the Queen, Angella, so uncertain but so hopeful.

“Right.” _Right. Friends._ Adora’s inflated heart lost a bit of its air, but of course, friends was so much better than what they had been over the last month. Friends was everything she could hope for, _should_ hope for. They smiled at one another until a knock announcing that dinner had arrived pulled Angella away once again. 

They ate and talked, Angella occasionally throwing playfully disgusted looks at Adora whenever she talked with food in her mouth or took a swig of the fancy wine Angella had brought out and splashed a bit on her shirt. In great contrast, Angella ate her meal with almost surgical precision, and in between her own messy bites, Adora would watch with fascination as she cut up her roast pork one bite at a time in neat little pieces, chewing fully and swallowing. It meant that Adora finished her meal well before Angella.

“Do you have any good memories of your childhood?” Angella asked, bringing her glass to her lips. Adora did, and so launched into stories of her shenanigans with her Horde squadron, trying her best not to become sad when thinking about Catra. Angella laughed at many of them, which Adora hadn’t expected.

“And then, right before we almost made it out of there, Kyle tripped on his own feet and alerted the entire room of force captains. Lonnie and Catra split, but Rogelio picked him up and I screamed, ‘Sorry!’” Angella was laughing so hard she snorted, sending a warm jolt through Adora. “I still had the smuggled cake on my face and all over my shirt. That’s a birthday Octavia won’t forget,” she finished, chuckling. 

The night had become something from a dream, a wish. The summer breeze brushing past Adora was still warm even though the sky beyond Angella’s terrace was a vivid midnight blue. No moons were showing that night, but it didn’t seem to matter, Angella was looking healthier than she had in weeks. Though Adora hadn’t forgotten how the Queen had looked at her over the last month, the feeling was but a memory as she sat across from her now, enjoying every easy smile and laugh, hoping the night would never end, never grow tense. 

But of course, all good things have to come to an end eventually.

Angella winced at the end of her laugh, her hand flying to her chest. 

“What’s wrong?” Adora coaxed, leaning forward on her pouf as far as she could. 

“It’s nothing, just some lingering pain.” Angella’s voice was clipped, and her eyes closed as she massaged the skin over her heart.

“Will you tell me what happened?” The silence between them after Adora’s question wasn’t that of the night she’d found her on the library terrace. It was softer, almost as hesitant, but there was an agreement now— Adora would do anything to shoulder some of Angella’s pain however she could.

“After I took the Sword,” Angella began, sinking back into the couch, clasping her hands in her lap. “I felt such pain, I thought I was going to die. But I didn’t of course, and then there was so much light, it was everywhere but I couldn’t close my eyes.” She was speaking faster now, occasionally looking back up into Adora’s eyes and away just as fast. “And then it was just… darkness. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear anything, couldn’t feel anything, not even my own body. I could only think. About everything. About Glimmer, and Micah, and all of the mistakes I made. And about you.” With an anguish in her eyes that Adora could almost recognize, Angella gazed at her. 

“You thought about me?” Adora said, sure that her heart was going to beat out of her chest, and looked away from Angella’s face before her own betrayed her.

“You occupied many of my thoughts while I was in that place… More than I would have liked, actually.” 

Adora was brave, almost to a fault, and strong, willing to charge, as She-Ra or just Adora, into battle without a thought. So why was she feeling like she wanted to run from the room now? She felt her face burn, with pleasure, embarrassment at that pleasure, and then embarrassment for thinking that Angella’s words meant anything more than friendship. Because that’s all they _could ever_ mean. She took a deep breath and tried to release some of her tension while smiling at Angella.

“I used to sit at the top of a tree in the Whispering Woods, a really tall one, and imagine that I was close to you,” she admitted, figuring that if Angella was offering up a hard to admit truth, she should at least try to match it. But the question that plagued her then and even now barged its way into her mind, and before she knew what she was doing— “Why’d you do it?” she asked, throwing the question out a little harsher than she should have. And wanting to drag it back down her stupid throat as soon as the last word left her lips.

“You know why, Adora, I couldn’t let you suffer that,” Angella replied, leaning forward as well so that their faces were only a few feet apart. “And I would do it again, even if I hadn’t been able to escape that place. You deserve to live, to have choices in your life, and to have someone who will take some of the hard ones from you every now and then.” Tenderness filled the space between them, softening the somewhat angry edge Adora’s question had cut into her own heart. 

“Thank you,” she whispered, holding out her hand. Angella took it, and entwined her fingers with Adora’s. Her hand was so warm and soft, fitting with her own in a way that was just _right_ somehow.

“Thank _you_ , Adora. You inspired me and then you saved me. I don’t know how long I would have…” she winced, looking down at their joined hands. “It took so much out of me to send out those signals.”

“How did you escape?” It was a question that had sat at the back of her mind ever since Catra had taunted her with Entrapta’s banishment to Beast Island. _If_ that had been the truth. It did make sense, though, the Horde’s technological improvements had stopped for the most part. Without Entrapta’s involvement, how was Angella sitting right in front of her, _here?_

“I’m not sure…” she admitted, though her eyes flicked back to Adora and then away again, looking as though she might be holding something else back. Angella’s eyes became distant, drawing back into herself, reliving memories. “I just remember excruciating pain, then waking up to see tubes and pipes, a terrible face…” her grip on Adora’s hand tightened. “And— and…” Angella’s face was pulled tight, her eyes shut so hard that her eyelids were twitching, and her lips trembled as she tried to form words, but couldn’t. Just as the first sob came, Adora rushed to the spot on the couch next to Angella, and pulled the brave woman into her arms. Racking sobs crashed over her as she fell apart, Adora trying desperately to console her with murmured words and soft caresses. The usual roles between them reversed, Adora held Angella tightly to her, feeling a strange kind of relief that Angella had finally opened up to her, trusted her to be able to help carry some of this weight. 

Adora felt in that moment as though there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for this woman. She ached to take away some of Angella’s pain, to bear her sacrifice and her trauma on her own soul so that this beautiful shaking being in her arms didn’t have to do it alone. They clung to one another, each taking strength from the other, equally and woefully ignorant of the way they each felt. 

This hadn’t been the first time the Queen broke down like this, but she had always been alone. Her grief and guilt at Micah’s loss had not dimmed with time, but she had grown used to it, and so could usually bear it. A certain loneliness had always been there within her, mostly dormant, but it had been awakened with a fierceness that made her weak, prying her heart open against her will, allowing the seeds of— _something—_ to take root there. This was the first time that she’d had anyone to hold her in so long, not just her yearning body which _thrilled_ at Adora’s touch, but to hold her aching, tattered soul as well. And with Adora’s strong, unyielding arms around her, Angella knew there was no going back, no more denying the delicate flower beginning to blossom inside her heart. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I have the next chapter done but it's quite short so there might be tweaks, should be up in a day or two either way :)


	7. Temptation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keeping her distance hadn't worked, only causing them both undue pain. What could Angella do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is short and sweet!

After denying temptation and her aching need for comfort and touch for so long, Angella was finding it very difficult to remember why she shouldn’t allow Adora to hold her this way. Her tears had finally stopped falling and her body, soothed by the steady beat of Adora’s heart, had relaxed. A hesitant but still somehow sure hand caressed her back just below her wings while another was gently stroking her cheek, every brush reaching down through her skin to heat the blood beneath. She shivered slightly as the calloused fingertips of a soldier moved from her cheek to her hairline, and began to run through her hair, so gently, as if afraid to cause pain… or to frighten. 

Every flare of pleasure from each touch was another piece of shame Angella hid inside her. Adora was earnest, kind, and seemed to be as drawn to Angella as she was to her, but was it in the way Angella feared? When Adora first arrived, smuggled in by her stubborn and rebellious daughter, there had of course been fascination— who was this young woman wearing Horde insignias, claiming to be the legendary warrior She-Ra? Each new thing to learn about Adora was more interesting than the last, and she’d had to hold herself back when grilling Glimmer. Soon, she began to worry about her, impulsive and eager as she was, every time they went out on a mission. It was easy, at first, to equate that with the close friendship that grew between Adora and Glimmer; She-Ra had made it impossible to go on delaying Glimmer’s venture out into battle, so she worried. 

But Angella knew, even if she did not want to admit it, that it had become more than that. Foolishly, she allowed herself to care for Adora, to comfort her, to hold her hand when she looked in need of encouragement, to hug her when the monumental pressure of being She-Ra threatened to totally envelop her. _Excuses._ All of it. There was this _spark_ in her that she’d found in Micah, attracted to it like moth to flame. She cared deeply for the woman who had become her daughter’s savior, _her_ savior, her source of comfort, almost as central to her life as Glimmer. Which is why she had pulled back, rationalized away her own pain as best she could— though she had spent many of the days and nights _aching_ with a longing she could barely stand— and tried so hard to redraw the line between them.

She hadn’t anticipated Adora’s pain, hoping irrationally that it was one-sided. It was so obvious on the back of that horse how much anguish Adora had finally been released from as Angella woke up and saw her face, lit up with joy. So easy to lose herself in those big blue eyes, even brighter as She-Ra… 

As she remembered those confusing, blissful moments, Angella, who had kept her arms cradled to her while she cried, reached out to wrap them around Adora’s firm waist. Adora breathed a sigh, automatically adjusting herself beneath her, pulling her closer. Angella ignored her impulse to stiffen and pull away as she had done so many times before. She could have this… for now. The look on Adora’s face after she’d tried to comfort her earlier that night haunted her, and it had been Angella’s fault for enforcing their distance. Angella feared she was too late, that they were two moons trapped in orbit around each other, drawing nearer and nearer with nothing to be done, until they collided. 

What was the right thing to do? Micah and Glimmer… Her love was gone where she could never reach him, and he would want her to be happy, would he not? But Glimmer… they had always had a turbulent relationship, and she knew she was mostly to blame, and this— _this—_ would only make things worse. Adora was a woman, much younger than her, but no younger than Micah had been when they’d met. But Glimmer would not see it that way, Angella was certain. She flinched, thinking about the words Glimmer would hurl at her if… if she found out. 

“Angella?” said Adora gently, breaking Angella out of her spiraling. “Are you okay?” Angella pulled away slowly so she could see Adora’s face. It was calm, but her eyes were wide with concern, reminding her of why she’d broken down in the first place.

“I’m not sure,” she said honestly. Flashes of red light, screaming, _her_ screaming— 

“Hey, it’s okay, you’re safe,” said Adora, placing her hands on either side of Angella’s face. “Nobody can hurt you here, I won’t _let_ them.” 

As quickly as her mind had been thrown back into dark places, Adora had reached in and pulled her back out. Angella’s heart was beating powerfully, somewhere in her throat, making it difficult to breathe. Adora’s face was mere inches from hers, her blue eyes pinning her in place, and her _lips..._ Slowly, barely trusting her own body, she took Adora’s hands from her face and leaned away, smiling even though the part of her that yearned for Adora was shouting, enraged at her refusal to act. She didn’t miss the valiant effort Adora gave to hide her disappointment, all but confirming for Angella that her musings about Adora’s feelings for her had been right.

Angella should have felt sadness, regret, maybe even disgust at that, but instead a pulsing heat began in her center, extending its warmth to her arms, legs, fingertips, and toes. She had Adora in her bed chambers, alone, _willing—_

With a small huff, Angella got to her feet in one swift motion. Adora stared up at her, her cute lips in a slight pout. 

“I’m feeling quite tired, Adora,” she said warmly, extending her hand. Adora grabbed it and she pulled the woman to her feet. The space between them was charged once again. The sight of Adora’s skin and general lack of modesty in that tank top was not helping, and Angella’s head began to swim with desire. Perhaps she could pass it off as exhaustion. “You can come back tomorrow, and we will take a walk about the grounds.” The more public, the better. Adora grinned at her, as charming and lovely as ever.

This was going to be so very difficult.

“Oh, is this an official, royal request? Should I bring my sword, your majesty?” said Adora, putting on a silly but endearing impression of Angella’s accent and dipping into a dreadful curtsy. Angella tried very hard not to smile.

“If you would prefer,” she said, nearly keeping serious, but as they locked eyes, they both let out loud, bursting laughs. As Angella led them back to the door of her chambers, her spirit was light, and she was sure that even though nightmares would come, the imprint of Adora’s presence might keep them away for a little while at least. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” said Adora as she opened the door. But she hesitated on the threshold, looking back at Angella, seeming to search her face. Angella felt her cheeks burn slightly as she thought about what a courting couple might do in this situation, anticipation as well as dread churning in her stomach. But Adora only took her hand, brought it to her lips, letting them brush against Angella’s fingers and causing her stomach to flutter, and placed a soft kiss there. Angella said a silent prayer to Etheria for Adora not looking up at her while she’d done so, or she might have just dragged her back in her room and—

“Good night, Adora, sleep well,” she said quickly, once she had her hand back. 

“Good night, Angella.” She turned around, and then Angella remembered something.

“Wait!” she called out. Adora turned back right away.

“Yeah?” she said hopefully, taking a few steps back to her door. 

“Can I have my letter back?” Angella held out her hand, giving Adora a coy smile. Adora pulled the creased and tattered piece of paper from her back pocket and placed it in Angella’s outstretched hand, seeming determined to touch her one more time with the light brushing of her fingers. “Thank you.”

One last glimpse of that dazzling smile and Adora turned away, setting off down the hallway in what Angella could only call a strut, or maybe, she pondered, watching Adora’s shoulders roll with each step, confidence radiating from her, a swagger. Angella watched her go, leaning against her door frame, letting her eyes wander down Adora’s firm body... One of the guards posted down the hallway glanced her way, giving her a nod when they saw her looking. Angella’s cheeks burned lightly once again, but she didn’t really worry, it wasn’t like anything had happened. 

But she’d wanted it to. She shut her door and huffed, annoyed at herself again as the desire and pulsing of her core made a return. She took her robe off and climbed into her soft bed, wondering how she would ever fall asleep like this, flushed and restless with her desire. Maybe, just tonight— she’d crossed so many of her own carefully drawn lines already— Angella could indulge a fantasy...


	8. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Angella grow closer, but there are always consequences when you hide the truth from people you love.

The last two weeks had been something from a dream. She was home with her Glimmer, she felt almost entirely healthy now, and with all the crossing of lines she’d been doing with Adora, Angella was very close to allowing herself to cross a few final lines. Glimmer was a grown woman now, and Micah had been gone for more than a decade, though of course she would always love him, always keep him in her heart. This tender, blossoming thing with Adora that neither of them named or acknowledged was… heavenly. She’d never felt more adored, more safe, more _desired_ . Though she’d carefully orchestrated their time alone to be in full view of anyone who happened to be on the grounds, that hadn’t resulted in fewer touches, just fleeting ones that left her body aching for _more._

Adora filled her in on what had happened in the year she was gone— how Glimmer’s coronation was, how the princesses banded together to help her, and the mischief they still managed to get into even with Glimmer being Queen. She smiled at the thought of her daughter, so full of vibrant life, trying to fill the duties of being Queen while still zapping around the castle scaring people. 

She told Adora of the days when she’d been younger, and felt free from the pressures of ruling. Free to run. Free to fly. How she used to venture into the Whispering Woods and befriend every creature she met until they were all following her around. Adora had laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Angella asked, smiling so fondly at her. 

“It just sounds a lot like a silly storybook Catra found in a trashcan once and read to us all when we were kids. A princess that befriended animals and they helped her on adventures and even saved the world from evil.” Now Angella was blushing, which Adora didn’t miss. “No… No way, don’t tell me—”

“Of course not!” she said, laughing. Adora shook her head and nudged her lightly with her hip. They both descended into laughter.

It wasn’t all laughs and smiles though. Adora also talked about how strange it was that the Horde hadn’t tried to make a move on Bright Moon. Angella tried to temper her reactions to mention of the Horde, but there wasn’t much she could keep from Adora’s observant eyes. 

“You can tell me, Angella,” she had said, multiple times on separate days. Angella had kept the full extent of what happened to her from Adora, fearing her reaction, but one day, no longer able to resist the encouragement on Adora’s face, she finally decided to talk about it. 

“I didn’t just… wake up back in our reality.” They had reached a bench made from Perfuma’s roots, so Angella sat. Adora joined her, taking the hand Angella had purposefully left on the edge of her lap in both of hers. Angella didn’t care if someone saw, she needed the sure strength of Adora’s fingers wrapped around her own to get through this. 

As she recounted her experience, Angella kept her eyes away from Adora, knowing that the horror there would only make it harder to continue. While she was trapped in the black nothingness of nowhere, feeling nothing but thoughts pinging around in an endless void, for an amount of time that she still couldn’t wrap her mind around, something had grabbed her. Squeezed her, choking her though she had no body to choke, no voice to _scream_. She thought she was finally going to die, but couldn’t find the peace that should have come with the thought. 

“And then it felt like my body was being shoved into a hole the size of a marble,” she said, holding her fingers at about the size she meant. “It hurt so badly that I wanted to die—” she cut off, choked up. Adora wrapped one of her arms around Angella’s waist, pulling her closer. “I think I lost consciousness, because the next thing I knew, I was opening my eyes, my real eyes, and my body felt like it was on fire.” Angella drew in a shuddering breath, the real terror coming. “Hordak was standing over me, hooked up to a machine, and floating above him was this— this thing— a terrifying face—” A face so evil, so frightening, it chilled her blood and kept her from screaming. “It went _inside_ Hordak, and they beat me—” Adora’s fingers on her waist and holding her hand clenched very tightly, grounding her. “— and chained me to the Black Garnet.” 

Tears were falling down her face, and she felt the tracks of each one as a breeze fluttered over them. Adora’s eyes bore into her, but she still didn’t want to turn to face her, fearing she wouldn’t be able to continue, and now that she’d started, it was like a poison was being sucked out of her with every word. 

“I don’t know how long they kept me like that. I saw Catra, I think, once, peeking in at me, but Hordak screamed at her to leave, and then he—” she swallowed. “He and that _thing_ tortured me, trying to get information on the Rebellion, on you. I didn’t give them _anything_.” She allowed pride to bolster her words, and Adora’s fingers squeezed again, now in solemn celebration. Her breathing seemed too slow, deliberate, and Angella wondered how close she was to losing her cool. “I started trying to connect to the Moonstone, to send out signals to Glimmer, but I think it was weeks before—”

“Weeks!?” Adora finally spoke, her voice strangled. “You were back, trapped there, for weeks?” Angella turned and met her eyes for the first time, shocked to see Adora had tear tracks as well. She nodded. Adora opened her mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “I had the same dreams Glimmer did, but I could never remember them.”

_Adora got her signals, too._ A strange pleasure flowed down her body. How was that possible? 

“If you couldn’t remember them, then how—” 

“We both remembered one the night before I came to rescue you.” That must have been the night she’d finally been able to connect to the Moonstone. She sent her mind back, closing her eyes and flinching at memories. If only she could remember…

And there it was… 

_Concentrating with every ounce of her power, Angella sent out a pulse of energy— and felt the power of the Moonstone, dim over the distance but there! Desperately she reached out to Glimmer again, pushing and pushing—_

_Glimmer was calling out for her, but so was someone else…_

_Adora!_

She snapped back, grinning. Somehow, they were connected, by magic. Adora was watching her, concern and curiosity blazing on her face. Maybe… She-Ra? She was a princess after all. Angella didn’t really care. It was enough to know that it was not an accident or coincidence that Adora had come for her when she did.

“You saw my burst of power too, I’m guessing,” she said, smiling. Adora looked abashed now.

“Actually, it was that that finally made me disobey Glimmer to go to the Fright Zone.” Only pride for Glimmer’s decision filled her heart, it was a Queen’s decision, and she hadn’t allowed Glimmer to apologize for it. A thrill of joy also joined in at the idea that Adora had disobeyed a direct order from a Queen to rescue her.

“A strange Horde soldier named Scorpia let me outside for a minute, and I used the last of my strength to do that. The next thing I remember is seeing your face.”

“You must’ve woken up just before I found you because you set off another pink bomb when I was close.” Adora was grinning at her. “Interrupted a good fight, too.” She lightly nudged Angella, whose heart had never felt so… erratic, ecstatic, pulled in so many different directions. 

Maybe she should never have allowed their friendship to develop like this. Here they were, in full view of anyone who walked this way or looked out from the castle, Adora’s arm wrapped securely around her waist, holding her hand, no space between them at all. It wasn’t how she imagined most people sat with their friends. But it would be excruciating to separate herself from Adora now, physically or emotionally. She sighed, leaning her head on Adora’s broad shoulder as she considered their precarious situation. If there was anything she knew for certain after her long life, it was that things hardly ever stayed the same for very long, and there was no way this balancing act of theirs would last.

* * *

Adora sighed and looked up from her sketch of Bright Moon castle, turning to Bow and Glimmer who were staring at her like she’d grown another head.

“What?” she asked, annoyed with them interrupting her daydreaming as she’d plotted each terrace on the tall face of the castle, spending a particular amount of time on the farthest one from her.

“You’re _whistling—_ ” 

“And you didn’t hit me when I suggested we attack the Fright Zone—”

“That we _what!?”_ said Adora, but Glimmer waved at her to be quiet as she went on.

“Seriously Adora, what is up with you?” Suspicion coated her words as she leaned forward on their picnic blanket. They were taking a rare day off, from Queen duties, from Tech Master duties, and from She-Ra duties, relaxing and lounging with food in the warm sun.

“Nothing! Things are just…” she searched for a word that wasn’t ‘radiant’ or ‘magical,’ positive that would tip Glimmer off. “Good. You know, for once. The Horde is the Horde but we keep winning!” she said, a little overenthusiastically, but Glimmer seemed appeased for the moment. Bow was looking between them with fond exasperation, then shrugged and laid back down, popping a grape into his mouth. 

Things _had_ been radiant and magical though, at least compared to the first month since Angella’s return. She and the Queen were taking almost daily walks, her color finally getting better every day. Adora pointed this out to her once, but she had blushed and waved it off, muttering something about Castaspella’s new remedy. But Adora knew it wasn’t _that_ because she’d been undergoing that treatment since her return. No, it was something else… but the how didn’t really matter to Adora, just that she was getting better. 

Angella started showing up to lunches and dinners, and the whole castle delighted in this. Before her loss, Adora was under the impression that many of the inhabitants of the castle had thought of the Queen as uptight, someone who you didn’t enjoy frivolity or mischief around, all business. But losing someone the way they all had tends to shift perspectives. She was greeted with smiles and laughter at each meal, involved in conversation, and even a bit of after dinner fun with the princesses. Frosta would demonstrate her ice gauntlets or ice castle architecture, and Perfuma would give her a crown of pink roses or bracelet of purple lilies. Mermista was, well, Mermista, but Adora could tell she was happy, too. 

Adora, who took up as much of the Queen’s time as she could when they were out on the grounds, allowed everyone else to enjoy her presence during and after meals. But every now and then, their eyes would meet, and heat would rise inside her again. And she would remember that night almost two weeks ago… The night Angella had let Adora hold her. The night she was sure they had almost kissed.

She had been dismissed once again soon after, but something about the way Angella looked, glowing and coy, made her think that maybe it wasn’t impossible. They didn’t have much of an opportunity like that again, as they stayed out on the grounds when they were alone, but Adora had found ways to touch her now that she was sure it wouldn’t scare her away. The brush of swinging arms, laughing together and lightly touching her forearm, bumping into her on purpose to tease her about something she’d said.

And then a few days ago, when she finally told Adora the whole story… every fighting instinct in her wanted to grab Swift Wind and make for the Fright Zone so she could sink her sword right through Hordak’s heart. But the arm she’d kept around Angella grounded her. She _would_ pay him back for this, Adora swore it as tears had run down her face. Every time she held Angella’s hand, felt the lingering scars on her wrists from the manacles she’d been held in, Adora swore it. 

“Bow, can you go make sure the princesses are getting the ballroom ready?” said Glimmer in a bored voice, bringing Adora back to the present.

“Awww, why me? Make Adora do it,” he said, not even opening his eyes. But he must have felt the heat from Glimmer’s eyes, because his own shot open and he slowly got to his feet, groaning with every movement. “Can you at least—” 

Glimmer grabbed his arm, popped out of existence, and appeared again, sitting right in front of Adora. She looked up in surprise.

“Is there anything going on between you and my mom?” she asked, almost casually, but they’d been friends for long enough for Adora to tell when Glimmer was secretly upset. 

“No, Glimmer, nothing is going on. We’re friends.” Adora hoped she didn’t sound bitter, but at least she hadn’t lied. Mostly.

“You spend a lot of time with her,” Glimmer stated, crossing her arms, beginning to look mad. Adora glared at her. “You want her,” she said haltingly.

“Not like—” Adora began, instinctually trying to conceal her feelings, sure that even if it was definitely a lie, at least it was one that nobody could prove otherwise. One that would live and die in her heart. Glimmer cut her off.

“Come on, Adora, don’t lie to me, I see the way you look at her,” she said softer than before, a tender sort of pain swimming in her eyes. Something clicked, suddenly and helplessly in Adora’s mind, and she stared at Glimmer, her lips parting in surprise of their own accord. Glimmer’s eyes widened, but she seemed paralyzed, and the two just sat there, each afraid of voicing the truth.

“Glimmer—” said Adora in a choked voiced, leaning forward—

But Glimmer vanished in a small cloud of sparkles and did not return. Hot tears spilled from Adora’s eyes as she gripped her sketchbook hard enough to put dents in the hard leather back. _How could she not have seen this?_ Unfortunately the answers were easy and numerous: Glimmer’s obvious attachment to Bow, Adora’s total preoccupation with _everything_ surrounding Angella, and the simple and painful truth that… Adora just didn’t feel the same way for her best friend. 

How was she going to make it through Princess Prom like this? 

* * *

The next day, the castle was filled with activity. The ball was to be held the following night, and everyone was frantically preparing. Frosta wanted to go full ice castle like her own, ruined prom had been, but Perfuma diplomatically suggested they make it a mix of everyone’s tastes… Before Mermista took over and made the whole thing an underwater theme, complete with massive aquarium tanks with various sea creatures lining the walls of the ballroom. Everyone was very impressed, but Perfuma sighed and shook her head, mumbling something about needing a meditation break. 

Glimmer was busy developing a plan for getting all of their guests to Bright Moon without alerting the Horde to the event and creating a wonderful target, so Adora hadn’t been able to talk to her. Bow hadn’t been much help either, as he seemed to be equally busy coordinating the festivities and food, or maybe he was trying to ignore Adora on purpose, she wasn’t sure. 

It left Adora to mope about the castle, hoping she would be needed somewhere and never was. Eventually she wandered into the art studio and began a new piece. Lines of pink and purple bled into each other, surrounded by stabs of blue and gold. She worked it and worked it, never really having any destination in mind but just letting her hands take her where they wanted. Adora had missed this very much, the actions of holding the brush and painting in strokes was much like a softer version of wielding her sword, except instead of destroying she was creating. 

Lost in the process of it, Adora hadn’t heard the door open, and nearly yelped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, jumping away before realizing who it was. The very last person her heart could handle at the moment, _of course._

“Sorry!” said Angella, removing her hand and taking a step back. The corners of her mouth quirked up into a small smile as she clasped her hands in front of her, looking very much like her old self again. It made Adora’s heart squeeze and pull, the damn thing apparently oblivious to everything else.

“It’s fine,” said Adora, beginning to breathe normally. She turned back to her painting, wishing more than anything that Angella would just leave. Her being Glimmer’s mother had already been bad enough when that was the only reason to feel guilty about it. Now… Adora grit her teeth and tried to get back into a flow.

“This is beautiful,” Angella breathed, stepping up beside Adora. She just shrugged, stepping closer to the painting to do some detail work. After a minute, she felt Angella’s warm hand on her shoulder again, and she knew what was coming. “What’s wrong?” 

Adora was suddenly struck with déjà vu, and let out a small, bitter chuckle. They hadn’t been here together since shortly before Angella sacrificed herself, and so much had changed, except for the tenderness in her voice. Adora didn’t answer, guilt pricking at her as she thought about the softening of their boundaries. She’d stupidly allowed herself to hope, for them, for Glimmer’s eventual acceptance somewhere _far_ into the future, always counting on keeping Glimmer as her best friend. 

“Adora, please look at me,” Angella commanded softly, tightening her grip on Adora’s shoulder. A pounding started in her chest, hot and unforgiving. There was nothing she could say that was the truth, and Adora didn’t ever want to lie to Angella. She steeled herself and, putting down her paintbrush and palette, she turned to face her. 

More than anything, Angella looked afraid. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked again, a little more forcefully, sliding her hand down Adora’s arm to hold her hand. Adora shivered, her body betraying her in its pleasure, reminding her again how absolutely forbidden this was— somehow she’d forgotten over the last couple of weeks, but Glimmer and her confession— 

“Why don’t you go ask your daughter,” she spat, all the anger and bitterness rising up inside her hot and fast, taking over her words. Regret would come later— for now, it felt good to let it out. Angella dropped her hand like she’d been shocked.

“What do you mean?” she asked, surprise and hurt widening her dusty pink eyes. Her face, which had gained back it’s beautiful lavender hue in the past weeks, paled.

“I mean,” Adora fumed, her anger swelling, unable to be touched by the tenderness still in her heart. “Instead of spending all your time with me, you should go spend time with _Glimmer,_ ask _her_ why I’m upset! Maybe that’ll give you some insight.” Hot, angry tears were beginning to fill the brim of her bottom lid, blurring Angella’s shocked face. She blinked them away. “If you were acting more like you were her mother, maybe you’d already _know!”_

“How— how dare you!” she sputtered, her mouth opening and closing, for the first time that Adora had ever seen, at a loss for words. Angella’s wings thrust out from behind her, framing her flare to anger so impressively that Adora took a step back in fear. Her cheeks were burning a richer purple now, but instead of filling Adora with butterflies like her blushing usually did, it frightened her even more. 

Remorse flooded her body, making it heavy and dense, her teeth clenched so hard it felt impossible to pry them apart to say something. She raised a shaking hand hesitantly, but Angella smacked it away, her lips pursed, eyes tight, betrayal written on every plane of her face. The air between them was arid, stale, and painful to breathe in, like Adora was stuck in a vacuum. The force of Angella’s glare beat down on her harder than a hit from any enemy… but maybe, like Glimmer had said, this was for the best. 

Without another word, Angella swept from the room and slammed the door behind her, making Adora flinch. She threw her face into her hands and sank to her knees, unable to fully regret what she had just done— though still sick with shame— because maybe it meant the end to her constant internal battle of what she wanted versus what she knew was wrong. Why then, did she not feel any better? 

* * *

Feet couldn’t carry Angella away from Adora fast enough, and for the first time in so long, she lifted off the ground and beat her wings in one powerful downward thrust, speeding through the hallways of the castle until she reached a window. The sun was high in the sky, but instead of filling her with warmth, it just shone its light through the fractured pieces of her heart. 

Never in her long life had Angella felt so confused and hurt and angry all at once _._ What made Adora think she could tell her how to be a mother? She clenched her fists, and rose in altitude. What had she meant about Glimmer? Had she found out? Had Adora _told her?_ She felt tears fly down her face and fall to the earth. _How could she…?_

Angella climbed to the sun until she could no longer see Bright Moon below, obscured by clouds. Her wings were beating hard to maintain her height, and they were sore, not having been stretched or used for too long. But the dull ache felt good, distracting her from chaotic thoughts. She couldn’t face Glimmer like this, but she needed to do _something._ Mind racing for alternative explanations— it may not even be that she knows, but what else? Maybe it wasn’t Adora, maybe— _Shadow Weaver._

Feeling reckless for what must have been the first time in her life, Angella dove back toward the ground, determined to get back to the castle and finally do what she’d been too afraid to face.

Shadow Weaver had been given almost free reign of the castle— one of Glimmer’s more careless decisions as Queen— granted that she always had at least one guard on watch somewhere nearby. Pushing out any and all other thoughts, especially _Adora_ , she bypassed the guard, who looked wary but didn’t stop her, and let herself into the sorceress’s room without even knocking first.

“Your Majesty…” came a deep, malevolent voice from behind a partition. “Now this is a surprise.” A masked, dark haired woman walked out with her hands held behind her back. Angella swallowed her fear.

“I want to know what you're doing here.” It had been a while since she’d infused her voice with the authority she used to wield as Queen. 

“I’m a guest,” she said in a faux-innocent voice that made Angella’s skin prickle. “I’ve helped your little Rebellion against the Horde.”

Angella didn’t have time for this. 

“Do you recognize this?” she snapped, pulling out the letter Adora had written her that she kept with her so it wouldn’t once again fall into hands that were not hers or Adora’s, and she’d… she liked having it with her. But Shadow Weaver didn’t react, though it was hard to tell what she was thinking behind that mask.

“Should I?” she asked, a hint of amusement in her slippery voice. Angella felt her lips twist into a scowl.

“Someone slipped it under my door. I _will_ find out what game you’re playing, Shadow Weaver, even if I have to—”

“Is this about Adora?” she coaxed, tilting her head. Angella felt it as a little color and warmth drained from her face. “Yes, I thought so.” 

“So you do rec—” 

“No, I’ve never seen that piece of paper before in my life.” Her words were slow, taunting. “You just aren’t very good at keeping secrets, Your Majesty. And it hardly seems like you tried.” 

Angella’s blood was beginning to heat again. Who was this traitor, this _evil_ hag who had roped Micah into her dark plans and abused Adora, who was _she_ to talk to her this way?

“I suggest you seal your lips before I have you imprisoned again, and _this_ time with constant armed guard.” Shadow Weaver’s eyes narrowed, turning into white slits. 

“Maybe…” she nearly purred, stepping forward and closing the space between them until she was just a foot from Angella. “It’s not _my_ lips you should be worrying about.” Angella stood her ground, glaring down at her, though every inch of her skin crawled being this close to Shadow Weaver. “And I don’t just mean Adora’s.”

“I’m sick of your riddles. Tell me what you mean before I drag you into the atmosphere and let your robes slip from my fingers,” she demanded, scaring even herself. She needed to calm down, but every word from Shadow Weaver’s mouth was another blow to her already wounded heart. Shadow Weaver laughed.

“Oh my, I didn’t think you had this in you! Maybe I underestimated you, like you underestimated Glimmer.” All the blood in her veins turned to ice. Her scowl widened, taking over her face. “Relax, Your Majesty, all mothers disappoint their daughters. And like my Adora went running off to join your Rebellion, your Glimmer came running… to me.” 

Angella’s hands clamped around Shadow Weaver’s arms and flew them both towards the back wall, pinning the evil hag to it so hard she actually gasped in pain.   
“ _Shut. Your. Mouth,”_ Angella hissed, about 5 seconds away from making good on her threat, or maybe just using her power to silence the foul woman altogether right there. 

“But I thought you wanted answers?” she said innocently, still managing to maintain her unaffected air, albeit somewhat winded.

“Then talk,” she spat through clenched teeth. 

“Glimmer came to me, looking for power, for solutions. I provided. And then you returned, and shut her out. As well as Adora, I hear…” Angella tightened her grip, pushing Shadow Weaver harder into the wall. “Who else could she talk to about what she suspects of her mother?” Angella gasped, her worst fears confirmed, the fight suddenly leaving her body, and she released Shadow Weaver. Her feet carried her a few steps back and she covered her face with her hands, no longer caring about projecting an air of strength so that her people, this woman, would not see her for what she was: vulnerable and weak. Shadow Weaver clicked her tongue lightly in disapproval, and continued. “Like mother, like daughter, so emotional. Emotion is weakness, you either cut it out of you, or perish in flames of your own making.” 

Angella couldn’t stand one more word, shame boiling her from the inside out. Turning before she could meet Shadow Weavers eyes again, she flew to the door. But before she could leave, that same low, throaty voice stopped her. But this time, it was slightly more urgent.

“Be careful, Your Majesty, I didn’t slip that paper under your door, but someone did. You have a spy within the walls of your castle.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took so long, but I hope you enjoyed it! With the server maintenance, I've been holding off on posting it. I know emails are still wonky (especially with Yahoo accounts) but I really just couldn't wait to get this one out. In the meantime, I wrote three more chapters, so expect those soon as well!


	9. To Lose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora has decisions to make, temptations to resist, and a ball to attend. You couldn't ask for a more perfect recipe for trouble.

Sleep wouldn’t come. No matter how hard Adora tried to shove her thoughts down, they always came spilling back out. _The look in Glimmer’s eyes. The fear, the anger, the_ betrayal _on Angella’s face_ . If she weren’t trapped in the throes of losing both of the people closest to her in one, swift cut, she might have considered it impressive how the entire royal line probably hated her, including Micah, if he could see them. _Might as well be back with the Horde._

Slipping off her bed, Adora padded out onto the terrace to look at the moons. One was full, magnificently casting the castle and its grounds in a soft, pastel orange, while the others gathered around it in various stages of crescent. Tears filled her eyes the moment she wished Angella were here with her, seeing this. Against her will, it seemed, her eyes searched out the castle to her right. She could see Glimmer’s terrace, but not her mother’s. Glimmer… 

She had to talk to her. Their friendship was too important to her.

Walking through their shared bathroom, Adora knocked lightly on Glimmer’s door, hoping she was still awake, and that she would talk to her. 

“Come in,” came a soft voice somewhere high above. Adora smiled, thinking a silent prayer of thanks. Glimmer was up in her bed, but she wasn’t lying down. She was facing her own terrace, arms wrapped around her knees.

“Can we talk?” Adora asked quietly, allowing some of her anguish to bleed through. Glimmer nodded without looking at her. As gracefully and quickly as she could, she climbed the floating platforms to Glimmer’s bed, almost slipping as she reached the top, but Glimmer grabbed her hand to stop her from falling. “Thanks.” 

A ghost of a smile flitted across Glimmer’s face before she dropped Adora’s hand and wrapped it back around her legs. Adora sat next to her. But before she could start speaking, Glimmer did.

“You don’t have to say it, I already know.” Her voice was so somber that Adora’s heart tore a little. Adora took Glimmer’s hand back, and held it tightly as she struggled to pull away.

“Glimmer, I love you. You’re my best friend. And I’m so sorry I don’t feel the same way you do,” Adora said softly. Glimmer stopped trying to pull away. Tears were beginning to slide down her moonlit face, looking a lot more like her mother than she usually did. Not really knowing what to do, she just sat there, holding Glimmer’s hand. Eventually, Glimmer scooted closer to Adora and leaned her head on Adora’s shoulder.

“Of all the people in Bright Moon, on Etheria, why my mom?” she asked, a hint of somewhat forced, playful petulance, but Adora could see right through it down to the root. “How can I compete with an angelic being?” she challenged, giving a sad little chuckle and sniffing. 

“It’s not a competition, Glimmer,” said Adora, letting go of Glimmer’s hand and wrapping her arm around her. “I can’t explain why—” Glimmer snorted, obviously thinking along the same lines as she had all those weeks ago when Adora had first told her. “Come on, have a little faith! She’s gorgeous, yeah, but she’s… she thinks she’s this coward that always hides behind people, but she’s not. She’s loyal and protective and sometimes I worry she's going to explode from everything she keeps locked up inside her.” 

Glimmer sighed, and Adora felt a little guilty, worrying she was making things worse. 

“How am I supposed to deal with this?” Glimmer mumbled, half into Adora’s nightshirt. She didn’t know how to respond. 

“You won’t have to anymore,” Adora said before she could stop herself. Glimmer popped up, turning to face Adora and furrowing her brow in a quizzical way. 

“Why?”

“I… said some things maybe I shouldn’t’ve, earlier today, when I was… well, she looked really upset…” Adora’s stomach flipped at the memory of the look of betrayal on her delicate face. 

“You left an adjective off your list.” When Adora raised her eyebrows at Glimmer but didn’t respond, Glimmer sighed and leaned her head back on Adora’s shoulder. “She’s forgiving. She’s forgiven me for every stupid thing I’ve ever done.”

Adora’s throat closed at the love Glimmer was showing her, to be comforting her in this situation, something that had obviously hurt and bothered her from two very different directions. 

“Thanks, Glimmer,” she said, her voice wavering. “And… I’m so sorry. I didn’t… I didn’t do this on purpose.”

“I know, Adora.” They sat there for a little while longer, staring out at the moon, neither really seeing it, lost in their own heads. Adora left, feeling marginally better, finally able to sleep.

* * *

Almost always glamorous, Bright Moon castle had raised the bar even higher For Princess Prom. Floating little lights led the way across the bridge to the main entrance, each a different pastel color shining softly, just enough to see by. Glimmer was personally teleporting groups and individuals from safe points in their own kingdoms to the mouth of the bridge so they could get the full effect walking up. The inside was more magnificent than anyone had ever seen it; everything was gleaming, every surface polished to a fantastic glow that seemed to light rooms as much as the lights themselves. Walking into the ballroom left every single guest a little speechless— it was a lot dimmer, and the lighting from the tropical fish tanks cast colorful, waving shadows across the entire room, making it feel as though they were underwater. Frosta was searching guests for weapons, threatening anyone carrying even a pocket knife with her ice gauntlets, while Perfuma was ushering people away from her as soon as they were cleared so as not to start another war.

Adora was thoroughly miserable. A task in itself, because she looked like someone took the night sky of the First Ones and stitched it into a dazzling suit of velvet, cut very much like her every day outfit with big, pointy shoulders and a trim waist. Much more comfortable, much more _her_ than the dress she’d worn to her first Princess Prom, it gave her some small comfort. But she couldn’t fully appreciate it the way she was feeling. 

She’d tried to speak to Angella at least five times that morning and afternoon, to apologize and make up for the things she’d said, but every single time she had been ushered away from her chambers before she could even knock.

“The Queen wants to be left alone to get ready,” the guards would say as they nearly carried Adora back down the hallway. 

But Adora wasn’t even sure Angella _was_ going. It was Glimmer’s ball, and though the various kingdoms had some news that the Queen was back, nobody was really expecting her to make a grand entrance as the last they heard, she was still very sick. Whispers were about the ballroom and hallways, wondering, but it didn’t last. Once Glimmer walked out, dressed in a jaw-dropping periwinkle-purple dress that had a subtle but incandescent aura, the ballroom was filled only with silence. 

She gave the short customary speech, and asked the room to toast to peace. And then the party was on. Adora wasn’t feeling much like partying, but the other princesses, Sea Hawk, and Bow were tugging her along and soon she felt almost normal, until, with no cue at all—

If Glimmer’s dress had been jaw-dropping, Angella’s dress had Adora’s jaw completely on the floor. The rich, midnight purple satin hung to her ankles, clinging to her body in ways Adora could not have even imagined, had hardly dared to. It shimmered in the low light of the room, it’s fabric dark, but, like Glimmer’s, seeming to glow. As she walked into the room, Adora saw that there was a slit up the side of the dress along her leg, ending at the top of her thigh, the sight of bare skin making Adora feel like her whole body was simmering. She wasn’t the only one who noticed the Queen’s quiet entrance; everyone in the vicinity of her had gone silent, watching her walk with her regal posture perfect, nearly gliding to assume her throne next to Glimmer. Her wings were shimmering, like she’d covered them in a light dusting of glitter. Adora wasn’t the only one who stared, but she was the last to remain staring. 

Angella looked every bit as put together and royal as she had when Adora had first stood before her as She-Ra, but without even needing to get closer, she could tell it was a thin veneer wearing away with every minute she sat there. More than anything, Adora wanted to go to her, lead her somewhere quiet, away from the prying eyes of Etheria, and apologize. For the things that she said but also… for crossing the line between them consistently since her return. To assure her that it would never happen again. However, approaching her now would almost certainly raise questions, as it wasn’t proper etiquette. She’d need to wait for the dancing to start.

So Adora mingled for a while, saying hello to everyone she’d met before while also being introduced to new people by Bow and the other princesses, none of it really managing to catch her attention. All the while, she kept throwing glances back at the two thrones. Angella and Glimmer hadn’t spoken once, and both kept their eyes away from each other. Adora caught Glimmer’s eye once, and she gave a half-hearted wave and smile, giving Adora hope for their continued friendship. But Angella had either not seen or outright ignored Adora’s attempt to catch her eye. But she had a plan for that.

“Bow, I need you to ask Glimmer to dance.” He raised his eyebrows, giving Adora a questioning look.

“I mean, okay, I was going to anyways later on—”

“No I need it to be the first dance.” Adora said, raising her eyes to the ceiling, hoping she wasn’t going to have to get into all the nitty gritty details _here_ to satisfy him.

“Uh… why?” he replied. Adora groaned. 

“It’s customary for the hosting Royals to dance together, _unless_ someone else asks them to dance and they accept.” 

“Okay,” he said, crossing his arms, beginning to look suspicious. “But why do you need me to ask Glimmer?” Adora nearly grabbed fistfuls of her hair 

“Bow, can you just _please_ do me this favor? I will explain it all later, okay?” He considered for a moment, rubbing his chin, then nodded. “Thank you!” she said, throwing her arms around him. 

And then it was time. Glimmer stood, Angella a second later, and announced that it was time for the first dance. Adora watched as Bow walked up to the raised platform, and held out his hand to Glimmer. She looked a little confused, but very pleased as she accepted. Adora began to walk over just as Angella was sitting back down. 

“Queen Angella, may I have your hand in the first dance?” she asked, surprised at the way her voice didn’t shake, though she was as nervous as she had ever been addressing Angella. Up close, she was the most beautiful being Adora had ever laid eyes on, breathtaking in the literal sense. Adora held her hand out. 

A battle seemed to be taking place in Angella's mind. Her lips pursed and unpursed, brows furrowed and unfurrowed, and she held her own hand in an awkward between place from keeping it in her lap and reaching out to accept Adora’s offer. She could say no, there was nothing in the rules about the Royal Hosts needing to accept the offer. 

But like a miracle bestowed by the universe itself, she placed her warm hand in Adora’s. 

“Yes, you may,” she said, the hint of a smile hiding in her bright eyes. Adora couldn’t help herself with a wide grin, her soul feeling lighter already, then turned and led them to the dance floor. 

The dance was of Bright Moon tradition, and unlike in the Kingdom of Snows, partners stayed with each other throughout the duration of the dance, which Adora was very grateful for. The dance itself made her nervous though, as it involved much spinning, as well as a brief section of keeping very close to one’s partner. They got into the starting position, and Adora began to worry that this was a terrible idea as she and Angella gripped each other’s forearms. Then the music started. 

Angella was a moonbeam come to life. Light, grace, beauty. They spun around each other and everyone else disappeared. Some of the awkwardness between them seemed to melt away as they caught each other, each touch warming Adora, each glance into Angella’s dazzling eyes fueling her growing hope despite her intentions of dousing it again herself. When the dance morphed into something a little slower, more intimate, Adora ended up with her hands on Angella’s waist while hers were on Adora’s shoulders, and they swayed in time to the beat. Adora’s face felt flushed, she’d never been this close or had her hands where they were in front of half of Etheria before. But something about the hypnotic beat of the tune, the lights, and more than anything, Angella’s eyes, kept her from panicking. She was staring up at her, willing her mouth to function properly, but the look in Angella’s eyes was slowly becoming more and more like it had been a month ago.

“I’m sorry,” Adora finally said, her voice barely audible over the music. “For the things I said.” 

Before she could properly read Angella’s expression, the music changed back into the up tempo rhythm for the end, and there was more spinning and dashing around— no opportunity to speak. And then, with much cheering and clapping, the music ended and the dance was over. Angella dropped her hands from Adora’s and turned to go back to the thrones. 

“Wait!” Adora said, reaching out, but not touching her, afraid of her reaction around all these people. Angella stopped, but didn’t turn around for a few seconds. When she did, the look on her face made Adora’s heart stop. 

“What, Adora?” she asked, from Queen to soldier. Adora swallowed, and persevered.

“Can we talk for a minute, please?” she asked. 

“I’m not sure what there is to talk about. You made yourself quite clear yesterday.” Not even Frosta’s ice gauntlets could have been a colder punch to the stomach. “I accept your apology. Please, return to the festivities.” She turned around and started to walk. The music had picked back up and the sound of people talking and laughing as they began to dance freely barely reached her.

“Angella, _please—”_ Adora cried, in her desperation reaching out and taking Angella’s hand. She shook it off, rounding on Adora with a look of utter heartbreak on her face. Furtively, Angella looked around at the crowd of people still dancing, too caught up in the fun to pay them any attention, then dragged Adora off to a dark corner of the ballroom near the terraces. 

“Adora, I can’t do this, okay?” she squeezed Adora’s hand. Adora felt shaky panic building in her gut. “You were right, I have to think about Glimmer, what’s best for her. She’s all I have left, and I can’t lose her.” Adora felt tears falling, but couldn’t think, couldn’t move. “I’m so sorry, Adora.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

Angella cupped Adora’s face in her hands, and leaned down, placing a warm, lingering kiss on Adora’s forehead. And then she was gone with a hard thrust of her wings, disappearing into the dark Etherian night. 

Before Adora could even process anything but the terrifying sense of familiarity the moment had stirred within her, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” It was Bow, with Glimmer standing next to him, a look of intense indecision twisting her features. Adora shook her head, less to answer the question, and more to try and right herself. It was as though a rug had been pulled out from under her and she was still flailing in the air.

“We heard most of that,” said Glimmer, stepping closer. She took Adora’s hand, sucked in a large amount of air, and blew it all back out. “Adora— ugh this is so _weird!_ ” she shook her head, and let out a hysterical little laugh before arranging her face back into seriousness. “If you ever break my mom’s heart, I will gleefully teleport you into the Crimson Waste with no supplies.” Adora’s eyes shot to Glimmer’s, her mouth suddenly dry. 

“Wha-what?” she choked out. 

“I’m giving you my blessing, or whatever,” she said, a strange, disbelieving, but somehow still positive smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. Bow was looking thoroughly confused.

“Thanks, but I don’t know if that matters anymore,” said Adora, closing her eyes and seeing the look on Angella’s face. 

“I’ll go find her,” she said, and with one last look of determination, she popped out of existence. Adora felt numb, too many things had just happened in such quick succession. 

“What have I been missing?” Bow said, shaking Adora by her shoulder a little bit as he began to smile. “You and… Angella?” he asked. Adora reluctantly nodded, a smile making its way onto her face despite herself. “Oohhh, that makes so many things make sense.” He smacked a hand to his forehead. “So _that’s_ why she reacted like that when I asked if you could spend a night in her bed.” 

Adora devolved into bursts of laughter that shook every part of her, slapping Bow on the back once he’d joined in. Between tears of laughter, Adora made vague sounds of question. Once Bow was able to breathe, he held back more laughs and explained.

“I was trying to find you a new bed, so I was asking around about letting you spend a night in each of the princesses’ beds,” he couldn’t get through the whole sentence without another bout of laughter. “Everyone said no except for Perfuma, but her bed is made of grass and tree roots.”

“How did Angella react?” asked Adora, vitally curious, but still barely able to hold back her laughter. 

“She was drinking her morning tea, and spit it all over her tea table.” They both fell into laughter again, until a soft pop interrupted. 

“I talked to her! She was a little… weird about it, but it’s… it is weird,” Glimmer ran a hand through her hair nervously. “She wants to talk to you, she’s out on the terrace.” Bow and Glimmer both looked at Adora and gave her encouraging smiles, Glimmer’s somewhat pained, but she patted Adora on the cheek and all but pushed her outside. 

Adora walked, feeling like a bag of gelatin strapped to a bunch of flimsy sticks. The terrace was huge, and spanned one entire side of the castle, complete with a fountain and a garden with little hedges lining it. And there she was, at the edge silhouetted by the moonlight, her dress shimmering almost like water in a dark pond. Her hands were posed on the balustrade, hair blowing gently in the soft summer breeze. Adora cleared her throat. 

“Angella?” she called out, feeling like she was in a dream. Would it really be this easy? Angella turned, wearing a smile that set Adora’s skin on fire. She’d never looked at her _like that._ The closer she got, the more alluring the smile became. 

“Adora,” she purred, grabbing Adora by her waist when she was close enough, pulling her close so they were nearly chest to chest. “Glimmer just told me _everything_. What do you say we skip the party, take this back to my chambers.” She trailed a hand down Adora’s chest, over her stomach, and catching on the hem of her pants, causing her heart to beat like a hummingbird’s wings. 

“Wait—” said, Adora, seizing Angella’s wrist. Something about this didn’t feel right, but she couldn’t explain, even to herself, what it was. She looked up into Angella’s eyes, filled with lust and heat. Isn’t this what she wanted? What she thought about at night when she pleased herself, wishing without any hope at all, that it could be Angella’s hand—

 _Angella’s hand._ Slowly, Adora lowered her eyes to the wrist she still held, and felt along the sides for the scar that- that… wasn’t there. She dropped the hand and tore herself from the impostor’s grip, leaping as far away as she could. 

“You’re not Angella.” A different kind of heat brushed down her spine, and she got into a fighting stance. Not-Angella simply smiled, and took a step towards her.

“Adora, come on, I know this seems like a dream,” she said, slinking ever closer. “But I’m real, you’re real, and we’re here, _together._ Be with me, my love, let’s forget everything else.”

“Who are you? And where’s Angella?” she asked, nearly shouting, matching the imposter’s every step forward with a step back. She stopped, put her hands on her hips, and sighed. “If you hurt her, I swear to Etheria I’ll—”

“Kitten said you were dumb and oblivious, but you got me in one minute. What was it?” she asked, blinking— _her eyes were green._ “Was it the eyes? I couldn’t decide on the shade of pink since hers kept changing but I figured—” their whole shape was changing, morphing into… Adora gasped. “Any old shade would do once I got you all hot and bothered. Quite a kinky little thing you have going on with the Queen, hmm?”

Where Angella had just been standing, there was someone else, tall, reptilian, a lilting voice with just a hint of malice that made Adora’s skin crawl. She pulled her sword off her arm, but the shape-shifter’s tail knocked it from her hands and they grabbed Adora’s arms. 

“Can’t have you going all She-Ra and ruining the plan, princess.” Something hard hit Adora in the head from behind and she slumped forward, falling into unconsciousness. 

* * *

Angella paced in the antechamber just off the ballroom, her wings rustling in distress. She’d cried in her bedchambers until she snapped herself out of it, determined to continue putting on a good show. Once the night was nearing its end, she would find Glimmer and tell her everything— well, maybe not _everything_ , but enough for her to understand. And she would tell her that it was over, that there wasn’t really even anything _to be_ over, and she would take whatever Glimmer wanted to throw at her. 

One last slow, calming breath, and she walked back into the ballroom. It really was magnificent, and she wished she could appreciate it more. Angella winced slightly, as she had allowed her mind to wander back to Adora to wonder what she thought of the ambience. She shook herself, trying to push every thought of Adora out. 

Glimmer and Bow were off to the side of the room where she’d left Adora, speaking in hushed voices. Angella frowned, hoping that Adora was okay. Maybe she’d gone back to her room as well… Then, Bow spotted her, his eyes widening until he wore a somewhat guilty look. Glimmer whirled around, and looked confused. Angella sighed as she changed course and went to them. Better to get this over with if they already knew.

“Mom! How’d it… how’d it go?” asked Glimmer, a puzzling look of abashed hope on her face. 

“How did what go?” she asked, and the minute the words left her mouth, Glimmer’s face melted into confusion. 

“You said you were going to wait for Adora on the… on the terrace…” her words trailed off at the look on Angella’s face. _Wait for Adora?_ Angella’s heart raced. She’d said _no_ such thing, would have never said that to Glimmer— what—? “Did you just, like, block out our whole conversation?” Angella’s mind was racing for an explanation, but found absolutely none. 

“Glimmer, we never spoke, I was just—” It struck her then— _the spy._ She pushed past Glimmer and Bow and flew towards the terrace. “Adora!” she called out, not caring anymore who heard her. 

The sight she found on the edge of the terrace stole her breath, sending her to her knees. Adora had her hands tied behind her back, her feet chained together, and cloth wrapped around her mouth. Her blue eyes were open and pleading. And then— it was like looking into a mirror— _herself_. Standing next to Adora, holding her chains in one hand, and a knife to Adora’s throat in the other. Adora shook her head, which enraged Angella, she wasn’t just going to— 

Sounds of gunfire and screams started behind her. Bots dropped from gunships onto the terrace, and she could hear the castle being breached from above. But she couldn’t tear her eyes from Adora’s. There was no fear there, at least not for herself. She was looking into Angella’s eyes, shaking her head fiercely. Angella tried to get to her feet to take a step forward, and the spy pushed the knife into Adora’s throat. Horror consumed her as blood trickled down it.

“Adora!” Bow and Glimmer had finally come out, calling out her name together.

“Uh uh uh, stay right where you are, or blondie here gets another cut, deeper this time.” A gunship suddenly rose behind the edge of the terrace, and in it were two figures that sent a chill down Angella’s spine: Catra and Hordak. The spy picked Adora up, who was kicking desperately, and threw her into the open door in the back. They handed Adora’s sword to Catra, who smirked but stayed silent. Just before the spy jumped in, they morphed into a tall reptilian person with long flowing hair. Angella watched in horror as they put the knife back to Adora’s throat.

“Don’t follow us, or Adora dies. That means you, too, Your Majesty,” they said, pointing at Glimmer, who was now standing next to Angella, fists clenched, tears falling. Screams and the sounds of fighting were getting louder behind them, but still Angella couldn’t look away. The gunship turned and flew off over the Whispering Woods, taking Angella’s heart along with it. 


	10. Gone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora has been kidnapped and the Horde is attacking, turning yet another Princess Prom into a qualified disaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Pride everyone! <3

Chaos reigned back inside the ballroom. Horde soldiers were dropping in from the ceiling, along with bots, firing on everything that moved. Fortunately for the castle’s inhabitants, almost all were princesses who had experience in combat, so the fight was almost fair. Those who couldn’t fight were being ushered deeper into the castle for safety by Spinnerella, while Netossa covered them. 

Angella was still on her knees, frozen with shock. _Adora was gone._ No matter how many times she repeated the truth in her mind, it still would not sink in. Bow and Glimmer were pulling her to her feet, shouting words she couldn’t understand, yanking her back into the ballroom. The sound of screams and the sight of red and green blasts momentarily shook her, taking her back to when she was held, beaten. She yanked her arm from Glimmer’s grasp. Glimmer turned to her.

“Mom?” her eyes were filled with anguish and the need for action. Angella shook her head. “Wait here, okay?” Glimmer said, just as Bow took off, nocking an arrow on a bow he’d apparently concealed somewhere in his suit. With one last look at her, Glimmer followed, dazzling energy already shooting from her hands, teleporting around to take out Horde soldiers one by one.

“Glimmer!” Angella yelled, watching in horror as her daughter almost caught a burst of red energy in the stomach before teleporting away. _No,_ she would not stand by and watch! 

She spread her wings and took flight, letting the power of the Moonstone flow through her. White-hot energy built around her and with a yell of effort, she shaped it into a beam that she used to cut through the group of Horde soldiers blocking the exits. With another wave of her hand, she threw up a forcefield around the remaining guests who could not fight, and turned her attention to the bots cutting through the princesses. They were putting up a good fight, but whether from the close quarters or from fear of hitting someone who was not a bot or Horde soldier, they weren’t using their full power. Angella flew around, flanking the soldiers who had finally noticed her and were trying to take her out, but she was too fast for them. With two sweeps of her arms, Angella managed to get rid of the biggest bots. 

“Mom!” Glimmer teleported to hang off of the chandelier near her. “That was amazing!” 

Angella spared her daughter a quick smile before a blazing pain caught her in the leg, sending her careening to the ground. It was not the worst pain she’d ever felt, and with adrenaline pumping through her veins, she was able to stand up and get back into the air. No longer held back by bots, the other princesses, Bow, Glimmer, and Angella were able to deal with the rest of the Horde soldiers. There was no way of retreat, and they fought to the last. 

At last, all was quiet, but for some soft crying and a few feeble shouts of victory. Angella removed her forcefield, and fell to the ground, the pain in her leg finally becoming too much. Glimmer rushed over just as her vision became clouded. Her daughter was calling for her, she needed to stay… 

* * *

Angella’s eyes shot open and she jolted up, her eyes darting around. She was in the infirmary, along with what looked like half the ball attendees. Glimmer rushed to her side. 

“Mom, how are you feeling?” she asked, taking Angella’s hand. Angella remembered; Adora bleeding, disappearing into a gunship, the Horde attacking the ballroom, her leg— she flexed it, it had been healed. But she felt a bone-deep exhaustion that kept her from leaping from the bed like she wanted to. 

“I’m fine, what about you, and Bow?” Angella’s eyes searched Glimmer for injuries, but she was fine. _Adora._ She threw her legs off the bed, and tried to stand. She couldn’t just sit here while she was… _gone._ Her legs gave out, but Glimmer caught her. 

“Mom! You need to rest, the healers said you overexerted yourself. You’re still recovering—” she cut off as Angella began to cry. 

_Adora Adora Adora._

“I know, we’ll get her back, I promise,” Glimmer whispered. She hadn’t meant to call for her out loud, but it didn’t feel like she had a lot of control over herself at the moment. Her tears slowed, and she shakily got to her feet with Glimmer’s help. 

“We must convene with the other princesses,” she said, hoping the look on Glimmer’s face wasn’t to do with her unrestrained show of emotion at Adora’s kidnapping.

“They’re already waiting in the War Room.”

Five minutes later, despite the protesting of both Glimmer and the head healer, they were in the War Room. Bow waved them over to the holo table, showing detailed maps and statistics on the Fright Zone. Glimmer joined them, and the formation of a plan to rescue Adora commenced. 

Angella slowly walked to her seat and sat down, still a little dazed, still not entirely believing what had just happened. Adora was gone, kidnapped by the same monster who’d held her for weeks, beating and torturing her. The others had put up Adora’s picture at the top of the holo display, from a moment when she and Bow were returning from a mission victorious. Her smile was wide and vibrant, her big blue eyes squinting with triumph. A few strands of hair had come out of her ponytail, and Angella’s fingers twitched to tuck them behind Adora’s ear. 

What if they failed? What if Adora… what if those monsters killed her, and the last thing Adora remembered of Angella was her refusing to acknowledge her feelings for Adora, rejecting her and flying away, like a _coward?_

“— way I see it, we can’t just go charging in there. We need time, we need intel, Adora is brave and resilient—” 

“ _No_.” Angella had stood, knocking her chair back. Her word reverberated around a now silent room. Everyone was looking at her, some with their mouths slightly open. Netossa had been speaking, and now she was looking at Angella with wide, disbelieving eyes. “We are not going to leave her there a second longer than it will take us to get there. You all have no idea what they have—”

“That’s why we need intel!” said Netossa. Spinnerella put a hand on her arm, trying to calm her. “We go in loud and blind, we lose people.” She placed her hand over Spinnerella’s, and they shared a look so filled with love that it made Angella’s heart ache. 

“Everyone, please take a short break, eat something, treat your wounds,” said Glimmer, injecting authority into her voice. Then, quieter, she turned to Angella. “Mom, can I talk to you for a second?” 

Angella nodded, and Glimmer teleported them to her bedroom. 

“I can’t believe I have to have this conversation twice, _ugh!”_ she said, turning away from Angella and stamping her foot, reminding her very much of her teenage years, which, with a small jolt, she realized were over. And then Glimmer’s words sunk in.

“What conversation?” she asked, sure she already knew the answer, that it had something to do with her strange question just before Adora… Glimmer turned back to face her, her eyes shining.

“Mom, you have feelings for Adora, don’t you?” Angella’s breath hitched in her throat, and she clenched her fists so hard her nails cut into her palms. _She did know!_

“Glimmer… Yes.” No use in denying it now. A raging storm built behind Glimmer’s eyes, and her mouth twisted. Angella waited for it to break upon her. _Yes!_ She loved Adora. Down to her bones, down to the very center of her being. Admitting it, even to her daughter, was a rush that momentarily relieved her from every pressure currently bearing down upon her. 

The storm in her daughter’s eyes let up, and she sighed. 

“You were going to break it off—” she held up her hand as Angella opened her mouth to refute that there wasn’t any ‘it’ to break off. “— _whatever_ was going on, because you didn’t want to hurt me? Why didn’t you just talk to me about it?” Angella held back a hysterical bout of laughter.

“And how was I supposed to do that, exactly? ‘Hi Sweetheart, I’m starting to fall for your best friend, can I take her on a date?’” Normally Angella wouldn’t have resorted to sarcasm and humor, but maybe spending so much time around Adora had meant she’d begun to rub off on her. Despite everything, Glimmer looked like she was holding back laughter, too. 

“Maybe,” she muttered, wringing her hands. “This is still… really weird for me. But… you could do worse than Adora.” Angella felt a wide smile beginning to spread over her face. Glimmer wasn’t meeting her eyes, but Angella enveloped her in a hug, wrapping her wings around them as well. Love was spilling out of her, her heart no longer able to hold it all in. Love for her daughter, love for Adora, love for this life she had almost lost.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve a daughter as wonderful and brave as you,” she cooed into Glimmer’s hair, swaying them back and forth. Glimmer was laughing softly, and hugging her back. They remained like that for a little while until it struck her again, every time like a punch to her gut. _Adora._

She pulled back, letting her wings fall away. Fire and determination were burning inside her.

“Let’s go get her _back.”_

* * *

For what must have been the hundredth time, Adora strained as hard as she could against the restraints binding her to the cold metal table beneath her. Once again, it was no use. Entrapta must have designed these, otherwise Adora would’ve been able to exploit the weaknesses in the Horde’s usual restraints. Her legs were bound together at the end, a metal bar had been locked in place over her stomach and neck, and her hands were clamped at her sides. She was freezing, but it wasn’t the reason she was shaking. 

Fear, strong and cold, was taking her over. She hadn’t been in a worse situation since coming to rescue Glimmer, and at least then she’d had the other princesses with her, and Glimmer had been able to break free from the Black Garnet’s bonds and get Adora out. She could hope and believe that her friends were coming to get her, but she worried they’d be too late, or that they… that they’d been overwhelmed by the Horde’s forces. But even with that horrifying thought infecting her mind as she lay there, staring at the ceiling, Adora couldn’t forget the look on Angella’s face as she was taken. What Glimmer had said… her conversation had obviously been with the fake Angella, a shapeshifter who had finally introduced themself as Double Trouble before taking their payment and fleeing once they’d reached the Fright Zone. Angella, the _real one_ , had turned away from her.

 _I can’t do this, okay? She’s all I have left._ Adora strained uselessly against the metal, anguish taking root. She’d known it even as she’d walked out to meet fake Angella on the terrace that her words before had been true, unshakeable, and maybe _that’s_ why she’d felt so wrong. Adora just couldn't accept that even if Glimmer did talk to her, that anything would change. She bit back a choked sob as one single tear fell. 

She would survive whatever _this_ was, she would kill Hordak— for Angella, for herself, for Etheria— and end the Horde’s reign of terror and oppression on the planet, even if it killed her in the end. She was She-Ra! Adora looked around the room again, desperate for anything that could point to what the hell they were going to do with her. It was mostly empty, except for a few machines along one wall, lightly beeping, no clues as to what they did. The door was heavy, made to withstand blasts. Unusual for a door to a seemingly unassuming room. Adora wished someone would come and get it over with already. Waiting, staying still, had never been her strong suit. And just like that, someone entered. 

“Catra,” she snarled, straining against her metal bonds again. Her old friend was wearing an expression Adora had rarely ever seen on her clever, rebellious face: fear. Catra rushed to Adora’s side and started to undo the restraints. ‘What—?”

“Shut up! I have to get you out of here before—”

“Force Captain Catra, what do you think you’re doing?” It was Hordak, appearing almost as if from nowhere. Catra shut her eyes tight, mouthed, “ _I’m sorry,”_ and turned to face him. 

“I was prepping the prisoner for transfer, like you asked.”

“I asked no such thing. I’m surprised at you, Force Captain.” His voice was dangerous, different from how Adora remembered it the few times she’d been so unfortunate to be in his presence. “Do you wish to join your old friend? That can easily be arranged.” Behind her back, Adora saw her hand clench the table, claws cutting almost through the metal. 

“No, Hordak.” 

“Then I suggest you leave us.” His voice was almost low enough to be a whisper, more venomous than ever, sending a chill down Adora’s spine. Catra left the room, throwing one last confusing look back at Adora before shutting the door.

“Don’t worry, Adora, once I’m done with you, Catra will join you shortly after.” There was a vicious undertone in his voice that Adora had never heard before. Hordak was an angry, vengeful man, but… Adora remembered Angella’s story. Maybe that… that thing, whatever it was, was still inside him. “I can’t have those beneath me who do not believe in my vision remain, tainting our cause. Our numbers will be culled of the weak so we can rise, stronger than ever!” As his voice rose, his eyes, always a bright, vibrant red, turned the much darker, richer color of blood. 

“You won’t win.” Adora couldn’t stop herself. Anger was beginning to build, burning out the fear, the anguish. Hordak’s eyes narrowed. “You can kill me, but Etheria is stronger than you will ever know.” He smiled, his red, pointed teeth glinting.

“Young one, I am older than _you_ know. I have seen your face before, trapped beyond the bounds of time and space. I could not reach you then, but _now,”_ he suddenly gripped the sides of the table. “I have you, _your power,_ She-Ra!” He laughed, an icy, daggered sound that pierced her ears, chilling her blood. “Your vessel is different, but the power the same. Soon, it will be mine.” 

And with that, he swept from the room. Adora closed her eyes, feeling that somehow, she was going to make it out of this, and allowed her thoughts to fill with Angella. She sucked a deep breath in, then let it out, and resolved to meet her fate when it came.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to take this space to say I support Black Lives Matter, and I've been holding off posting out of respect for those protesting. Please, if you stand with Black Americans who are rightfully angry and fed up with the constant and systemic police brutality and discrimination, seek out petitions, donation websites, protest resources, and support networks. Listen, watch, pay attention, there is a lot of propaganda out there. Non-Americans, we see you standing with us, and I thank you! She-Ra is a story about love and magic, but it's also a story about resisting the oppressive forces of those who believe they are superior and can exert force on the population of Etheria. Be like Adora, Glimmer, Bow, and now, Catra. Resist. We can do better, be better. 
> 
> Anyways, thank you everyone. Your comments mean the world, I apologize for not responding to them, it's been quite a time the last week or two. I hope you're all staying safe, and I hope you enjoy!


	11. Rescue Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the rescue mission ready to go, everyone is eager to get Adora back, though nobody is quite as desperate as Angella.

The princesses, Sea Hawk, Bow, and Angella were ready. The plan was quite simple, really. Glimmer would teleport them into the Fright Zone, half would stay near the entry point and wait for the other half to get to the main building, where they were sure Adora was being held. Shadow Weaver gave them intel on the layout, but Angella refused her request to join them, glaring at the woman she believed only cared for herself. Glimmer had looked mildly annoyed, but they didn’t need her, Glimmer and Bow had been there before, they could remember enough to muddle through without her. 

Once the infiltration team was in place, the team left behind would set off bombs, use their magic, and create general chaos that they hoped would draw any attention away from the infiltration team’s attempts at finding Adora. From there… Angella just hoped they could improvise well, because they were going into this mostly blind. What she knew from being tortured for information was that Hordak, or the evil entity that had possessed him, wanted information on She-Ra, on how her magic works, where it’s stored, what her weaknesses were… If she’d known it had been something more than interest in the enemy’s greatest weapon... Guilt twisted her stomach into knots. 

But they were going to save her. Angella was going to do everything in her power to bring Adora _home_. 

“Ready?” Glimmer asked everyone. Solemn nods all around. Netossa still wasn’t happy about their plan, but everyone agreed, after what Angella had briefed them all on, that there was no time to waste. Glimmer held out her staff, and everyone gripped it. Angella placed her hand on Glimmer’s shoulder, allowing her power to flow through to her daughter so she’d have enough to get them all there. And they were gone.

Angella disliked the feeling now, too much like it had felt when she’d been yanked back into their reality— the pulling and tugging and the feeling of being pushed through a small hole. But thankfully it was short and painless.

They appeared behind a small building, and the smell was the first thing Angella was aware of, acrid and dingy. She gripped the small staff she’d decided to bring. It wouldn’t work for her like Micah’s did for Glimmer— she had no sorcerer blood— but it made her feel better. At the very least, it would hurt to be walloped with it. 

“Everyone’s comms on?” asked Bow, tapping on the communication device sitting in his ear. The group nodded. “Remember, wait for our signal, then let all hell break loose.”

“Stay safe, watch each other’s backs.” Glimmer touched everyone briefly, and then they were off. The infiltration team was made up of Mermista, Bow, Glimmer, and Angella. She hated putting the others at risk, but they were powerful, and it wouldn’t be for very long. As soon as they caused enough of a distraction, Swift Wind was standing by to get them out safely.

Angella needed to focus. She had one goal: find Adora. She let it fill her with purpose, pushing out the fear and shock of being back. They ran, ducking behind buildings whenever they spotted a Horde soldier patrolling or hanging around. There was a close call where they’d run right into one behind a building who seemed to be relieving himself, but with one punch, Mermista knocked him out.

“Fucking gross, dude,” she said looking down at him. They took his communicator, tied him up, and hoped he’d be out for a while. And then they were off again. Once they could see the central building, towering above all the others, Glimmer held out her staff again.

“Distraction team, do your thing!” Bow whispered, and they waited until they could hear several small explosions behind them. Alarms sounded, soldiers rushed out of buildings and towards the noise. Quite a few trickled out of the building Adora was likely in. Their plan was working! Angella held back the small burst of happiness, it was too soon to celebrate, not until she had Adora in her arms. 

They all grabbed Glimmer’s staff and were gone, reappearing in a dark hallway. 

“This should be near Hordak’s sanctum,” Glimmer whispered, but was looking unsure. They snuck along the side of the hallway until they got to a fork, with two options. Glimmer sighed, but confidently chose the one to the right. They continued down it for a while, until a figure stepped out in front of them from a room just ahead. _Catra._ Angella stepped in front of the group, energy building in her hands— 

“Wait!” she said, holding up her hands. “You’re here for Adora?” she asked, looking around at them. Angella nodded. “Get in here.” She pointed at the room she’d been inside. Nobody moved. Angella was glaring, sure this was a trap. Catra sighed. “I’m not… I’m not going to stop you, I- I want to get her out, too.” She seemed to be having a hard time putting together her thoughts, but then stopped, clenching her fists and glaring at all of them. “You guys are going to get caught, and then she’ll be stuck here until— until they… Just get inside!” she shouted, pointed again. Angella felt torn. The Catra who had attacked Bright Moon, kidnapped her daughter and Bow, tormented Adora, was here. But… there was something about the look of desperation she’d worn before masking it with anger that pulled at her heart. 

“Everyone, go,” Angella said, shifting to the back of the group and ushering them in.

“Mom!” Glimmer said, refusing to go. “How can you trust her?” 

“Just trust _me_ , okay?” Glimmer glared, Angella glared back. With a great huff, she turned and strode through the door.

“Thanks,” Catra muttered, holding out her arm as though to say, _After you._ Angella swallowed, hoping it _wasn’t_ a trap. She stepped inside. The others were staring open mouthed at a wall of screens, half of which showing— 

“Adora,” she breathed. She was strapped to a table, unable to move, but her head was thrashing around, her mouth open in what Angella was sure was a gut-wrenching scream. Standing next to her was Hordak, hooked up to a machine, his own face twisted in pain. Adora’s sword was on a table next to them, the stone in the center pulsing with light. Angella felt her knees shaking, her stomach dropping to her feet. She clenched her teeth as hard as she could, desperate to stay in the moment. “What is he doing to her?” she managed to choke out. 

“I have no idea. Hordak hasn’t shared his plans with me for months, ever since he let that thing share his body.” The others were staring at the screens, at a loss for words. “He’s been at this for hours, but he keeps storming out screaming about missing something. He takes a break, and then,” Catra swallowed, crossing her arms. “He does this again. I tried. I tried to get her out…” 

The other’s were glaring at her, except for Glimmer. She looked like she was deep in thought. 

“If you help us get her out, you can come with us, back to Bright Moon. I can’t promise you’ll be welcomed with open arms but…” Glimmer glanced back at Angella. “If you fight the Horde alongside us, your crimes will be forgiven.”

Catra looked shocked, her teeth bared, tail twitching back and forth behind her. Then she looked at the screens. Angella’s heart pulled at the softening look in her heterochromatic eyes. 

“Fine, sparkles,” she said, smoothing back her hair. “Just get her out.” 

“Can you distract Hordak the next time he comes out?” Angella asked, stepping forward. Catra turned to her.

“Yeah, I’ve got an idea… I’m assuming the alarms are you guys?” Angella nodded. “Fine.”

So they waited. After Catra told them exactly how to get to the room so Glimmer could teleport them there, they were silent. Angella couldn’t _not_ watch Adora, though it broke her heart into tiny pieces every time she thrashed, every time her eyes opened just a fraction, looking desperately over at her sword. The room was tense; Mermista had her eyes shut, lips clamped firmly together, manipulating a small globe of water in her hands, while Bow and Glimmer were holding tightly to each other’s hands, glancing at the screens every so often, but mostly keeping their eyes averted, each wearing a look of pain. Angella glanced at Catra every so often; she also had her eyes trained on the screens, her claws scraping on the wall beside her. Angella wondered if… if there had been something there. Something more than friendship with Adora. 

Before her mind wandered any further down that unknown path, Hordak ripped the wires from himself, and paced around the room screaming, hitting everything within reach but for Adora and the machine. Adora looked spent, but alive. 

“It’s time!” Angella called out. Glimmer nodded at Catra, who took off. They waited, watching the screens. Hordak opened the door, and there she was, speaking to him and gesturing behind her. He let out what looked like another howl of frustration, and she led the way off down the hallway. Glimmer teleported them into the room.

“Adora!” Angella shouted, dropping her staff and running to her. Noise in the hallway pulled the others away. 

“I’ll keep them away, get her!” Mermista shouted before running out. 

Adora’s eyes were rolling slightly as Angella undid her restraints and pulled wires off of her, but she quickly came back to herself and jolted away from Angella’s touch, landing hard on the floor.

“Adora, it’s me, darling, I’ve got you,” she whispered, pulling Adora into her lap. 

Her big blue eyes calmed, and then, like Adora was fighting an internal battle, her eyes were moving from happiness to suspicion, becoming warm one second, tightened and narrowed the next. Angella felt a shaking hand grip her wrist, feeling along it— and then Adora grinned, indecision gone, her eyes filling with tears. Angella felt a sob building, one of happiness and relief as she gazed into Adora’s beautiful, shining face, but she swallowed it back. Adora’s hair was coming out of her ponytail, framing her face, and she was still shaking slightly, covered in a thin layer of sweat.

“Angella, you came,” she said weakly, raising a hand to Angella’s cheek. “I knew you would.”

“Of course I came.” Angella cupped Adora’s cheek as well, wiping away the tear that fell. 

“So brave,” Adora whispered.

“You inspired me,” Angella whispered back, leaning down. Adora’s eyes widened in surprise. They were nose to nose, Angella’s heart swooping in her chest, urging her on. _Do it!_

Adora beat her to it, raising herself and closing the inches between them. Their lips met and a dazzling magic flowed through them, not from any Runestone, but a magic all their own, hot and insatiable. Adora’s hand moved to the nape of her neck, pulling her closer, not nearly close enough. Everything else fell away but the feeling of Adora’s soft lips on hers, moving with her own, causing her to melt. She’d forgotten how to breathe until a great tug in her chest pulled her away and she opened her eyes, her lips still tingling, breathing hard, as Adora did the same. They stared at each other and for a moment and it was like time had stopped, before Angella broke the spell by leaning forward and kissing her again.

A small, impatient cough came from behind them and Angella pulled away. She felt like she was just tugged back into reality, glancing over her shoulder at Glimmer and Bow who were wearing nearly identical awkward looks, though with small, reluctant smiles on each face.

“We should probably get going,” Bow said, gesturing over his shoulder with a thumb. Adora chuckled, reluctantly removing her hand from Angella’s neck, and stood. She offered her hand to Angella, who smiled blissfully, still experiencing a head rush from the kiss. Once they were both up, Adora grabbed her sword, yanked out the wires connecting it to the machine, and held it above her head.

“For the Honor of Grayskull!” she shouted. Angella watched in fascination as she glowed, grew several feet, and then She-Ra was standing before her. She’d seen it before, of course, but not since… well, she felt that now she could really appreciate the toned muscles, the height— Angella felt herself nearly swoon. “I’m going after Hordak.” 

* * *

Everyone in the room looked at her like she was crazy. Bow stepped forward.

“Adora, we just got you back, you really think we’re gonna let you—” 

“You guys didn’t see him, he’s obsessed, possessed by something evil.” Adora looked over at Angella, who was staring at her with a look of pained understanding. “He won’t stop until he gets the power he wants… My power.”

“I’m going with you,” said Angella, taking Adora’s hand and entwining their fingers together. Adora smiled, her heart still soaring somewhere up in the atmosphere from their kiss. 

“We’re coming, too,” said Glimmer. Adora saw she was determined, her face relatively clear… so they’d talked— _focus._

“No, you and Bow go, get whoever else you brought on this crazy mission out,” Adora said, smiling. “Angella and I will deal with him, then I’ll call for Swift Wind.” Glimmer and Bow looked like they were going to argue. “I’m serious. Nobody else is getting hurt, this ends _today.”_ They nodded, and just then, Mermista came in, panting. 

“Uh, you guys, are we going to escape now, orrr?” She said.

“Change of plans! Good luck,” she called over to Adora and Angella. “Grab on!” Mermista and Bow grabbed her staff, and they vanished. 

Adora turned to Angella, wanting so badly to talk about them, but knowing she had a job to do, a destiny to fulfill. 

“Fill me in.”

Five minutes later they were running down the hallway, straight for Hordak’s sanctum.

“You guys _are_ crazy!” she said, laughing. Angella laughed with her. Their hands were still intertwined, neither wanting to let go. 

There it was. Adora stopped abruptly at the sight of Catra being pinned against the wall by her neck. Angella shot a pink energy beam at Hordak, causing him to yell and drop Catra, who fell to the ground, sputtering, grabbing at her throat.

“ _YOU!”_ he shouted, pointing at Adora. Hordak’s body was shaking uncontrollably, like he was about to explode. And then, he did. Or at least, a dark shape burst from him, leaving Hordak to drop to the ground, limp and unmoving. 

_A terrifying face._ Angella’s words ran through her head. That didn’t even come close. It was a face made up of, somehow, all of Adora’s worst fears and insecurities, feeling like they were being screamed at her. Blood-red eyes, many of them, seemed to bubble in the thing as it rose in the air. Terror shot through Adora’s veins, but she was stronger than that, holding the memory of Angella’s lips against her own in her heart like a talisman. 

The face came at her, and as it did, it seemed to grow a sword of darkness from it’s swirling, ghost-like body. She heard its voice as though it were in her mind.

 _Fight me and die like a fool! I will rise again! I am the Void, always there, living in the shadows of the night._ Their swords clashed, metal on strange, solid darkness. Angella ran to Catra, made sure she was alright, and started shooting out more beams of light. It barely seemed to affect the Void at all. 

“Get her out of here!” Adora yelled. Angella picked Catra up and flew to the door, glancing over her shoulder, a look of anguish on her beautiful face. “Go!” She hesitated, but pursed her lips and flew out. 

They fought. The Void was fast, not really being made of anything, and Adora had to use every ounce of her remaining energy to parry their every strike. It was a dance, frenzied and furious, fear sapping at Adora’s will. The fight had gone on too long, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could last… 

Angella flew back in through the door, aiming a massive, violently bright burst of energy right into the middle of the face. They seemed to falter, and Adora took her chance, jumping into the air and, with a great _slice,_ cut into them. Energy erupted from where her sword met the cloud of nothing, throwing her back to the ground. She sought out Angella, who was staring up at the now bright, blazing cloud of energy that was shrinking in on itself, somehow getting brighter as it did. Adora crawled to her, and they clutched each other as it blinked into nothing—

A wall of brilliant light shot out from the center, and they shielded their eyes— and then it was gone. Silence followed, and then an eruption of noise behind them. The Horde soldiers were back, which meant the princesses were gone. Throwing a regretful glance at Hordak, who was groaning on the floor and clutching his head, Adora jumped to her feet, pulling Angella with her, and they took off. 

Angella tapped her ear.

“Is everyone out?” She listened. “Okay good, we’ll need him. We’re okay. I love you too, Glimmer.” She tapped it again. “Adora, Swift Wind is coming.”

The sounds of running and shouting soldiers were getting closer, there was no way they’d make it to the elevator. Adora groaned, and then laughed. _Swiftie, you won’t believe where I need you to be again. Same window. Hurry!_

“We’re going to have to jump. Unless you think you can carry me?” She grinned at Angella, who looked sheepish and shook her head.

“I’m already feeling as though I might collapse.” Angella took her hand. “I trust you.”

They rounded the corner where the Black Garnet Chamber was, both tossing glances at it, remembering. And then there it was. 

“There they are!” Force Captain Octavia shouted. _Swiftie, I’m jumping. Get over here!_ Adora scooped Angella up in her arms, shielded her face, and burst through the window, shattering it again. They fell, Adora’s heart swooping in her chest again, though the kiss had been stronger—

*WHOOSH*

Swift Wind was there, catching them hard and pulling out of a spectacular dive.

“What did I say, Adora?! Never do that again! And what did you just do?” He said, whinnying. Adora just laughed, euphoria bursting from every pore. 

“I never promised anything,” she said, petting him with her free hand, the other gripping Angella tightly. “Where are the others?” 

“Glimmer got everyone back to the castle, she was looking pretty tired though.”

“Catra?” Worry filled her, she should have made sure—

“She’s with them,” Angella said softly as she adjusted herself in front of Adora so she was straddling Swift Wind as well, and turned to look at her. She caressed Adora’s cheek, and they stared into each other’s eyes, lost for a moment. Then Angella turned back, facing Bright Moon, and relaxed into Adora, sighing as contently as if they were laying on a warm patch of grass. Adora wrapped her arms around Angella’s waist, and kissed the top of her pink head, reveling in the way this felt, so perfect, so right. 

“Thank you, Swift Wind, for this time, and for before,” said Angella, petting his long neck.

“Ah, gratitude at last! You’re welcome, Your Majesty. Maybe now, Adora can finally get—”

“Swiftie!” said Adora, a surprised laugh bursting from her. He laughed, but fell silent as they rode off towards Bright Moon. 

Adora asked for the full story right after she was kidnapped. Angella gave it to her, leaving nothing out. 

“She’s… she’s okay with it, with… us?” Adora asked, somehow still surprised even though she’d heard it from Glimmer herself first. The idea that… that they could be together, that Angella felt the same way… it didn’t seem real. 

Angella only nodded, gripping Adora’s arm even tighter. She continued the story up to their kiss, growing quiet. Even though she couldn’t see her face, Adora could feel her blushing, the energy around her heating and glowing. 

They’d made it back to the castle. The group was waiting on the ballroom terrace, some jumping, a few shouting. Swift Wind landed and the two of them slid from his back. Adora ran to Bow and Glimmer, letting She-Ra go as she did, and pulled them into a hug so fierce, they choked a bit, laughing. Adora beckoned everyone in: Sea Hawk, Mermista, Frosta, Perfuma, Netossa, Spinnerella, and finally Angella. 

“Thank you all, I’ll never forget this.”

“Princesses stick together,” Perfuma said, creating a bloom that tucked behind Adora’s ear. They broke apart, and that’s when Adora spotted Catra off to the side, leaning against a wall with her arms crossed. She walked over and pulled her into a hug, too.

“Adora! Hey!” she said, struggling, but Adora just gripped her harder. Soon she relaxed, and finally hugged Adora back. “I’m… sorry.” 

“I know,” said Adora. “I heard what you did for me. Thank you.” She pulled back, and punched her arm, maybe a little harder than she should have. “That’s for everything.” Catra smiled tentatively as she rubbed the place she was hit. 

That’s when Adora noticed one more addition, standing even farther away, looking like she very much wanted to join in on all the hugging. 

“I couldn’t leave her behind. Sparkles gave her the same deal she gave me.” Scorpia, Adora remembered. 

“Anyone who wants to fight the Horde is welcome,” she said, holding her hand out to shake her pincer, but Scorpia bounded over and pulled her and Catra both into a bone crushing hug. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! Oh, you won’t regret it! Emily makes the best tiny food—” a robot came rolling out from behind a tree. As Scorpia finally released them, Adora sighed, wondering if any other people were going to pop out from behind the fountain, or maybe from a bush.

She was back. Exhausted, sore, but filled with so much hope for the Rebellion, for Etheria, and for this new, glorious blossoming flower that had grown between her and Angella.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, that's not the end ;) the tags were not lying about smut, it's Coming.


	12. Give In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What is a kiss, if not a promise of more to come?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I listened to Mitski's 'Pink in the Night' practically on repeat writing this (as well as other songs I started to compile that made me think of Angella and Adora, below is a link to that Spotify playlist if you want to listen. Beware, some are silly and god, one is even called 'Boys' but I swear it fits just block out the boys part lol). Please enjoy, heavy smut ahead!
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3201NdoNZ1IOPq0K72cZSA?si=wXvys05vSdmI2wdf8MvzBw

Everyone spent the rest of the day helping to clean up the ballroom. Horde soldiers were given burial, beyond the limits of Bright Moon, and everyone shed a tear or two despite everything they’d done. Catra and Scorpia, and especially Adora, were proof that minds could be changed. The sight of it filled Adora with a small amount of regret that she hadn’t taken her chance and killed Hordak, but Glimmer assured her that it was for the best— for now. His death would have only meant a power vacuum. So they all rejoiced in the small victory, in having Adora back, and tried to put things right again. 

Taking a brief moment for herself, Adora got into a hot shower, letting the water cleanse her of the sweat, the smog, the fear. She leaned her forehead against the wall, only really able to think of one thing: _the kiss._ Had Angella meant it? Had she only kissed Adora to encourage her back to her feet, to the fight? Doubts rained down on her like the water droplets hitting her back, small but overwhelming. The kiss had been a slice of perfection, a burst of magic so warm, so blissful that it had blasted every ounce of doubt from her mind, but not permanently, it seemed. What did this mean for them? They hadn’t had a spare moment to talk, and there was so much left to do. Adora got out, dried herself, threw on her usual outfit, and went back to help.

The attendees were almost all healed, and Adora thanked Etheria that nobody from their side had died in the attack. After she almost collapsed trying to help the healers, Glimmer teleported Angella to her bedchambers, assuring everyone that she was fine, just drained. She shot a significant glance at Adora, giving her extra assurance. Adora was grateful, and though she knew her duty was to finish helping everyone, her heart longed to be with Angella. Glimmer teleported everyone home that same day, and once sunset had fallen and the last person had made it safely home, she collapsed onto her bed, exhausted. Bow and Adora had just finished with the ballroom, and had come to her room to check on her.

“I’m never teleporting again,” she said dramatically, throwing her arm over her face. Bow and Adora smirked at each other, waiting. And then Glimmer was in front of them, grabbing their arms— and then they were all on her bed, laughing. 

“Thank you, guys,” Adora said, her throat thick with love and gratitude. 

“We’re the best friend squad!” Bow yelled, punching the air. “We’d never let anything happen to you, no matter how weird your, uh, personal tastes are.” Glimmer swatted him, then took his hand, interlocking their fingers. Adora smiled, very happy to see that Glimmer was finally seeing what had been right next to her all along. 

They talked for a little while, until Glimmer drifted into sleep, Bow following not long after, leaving Adora the last awake. She stared at the canopy above, wishing she could be in Angella’s bed instead until she, too, finally fell off to sleep. 

Her dreams were wrought with imagery that scared her— blood dripping from eye sockets, blackness so engulfing it could have been death, bone-chilling laughter coming from everywhere— but then, slowly, her dreams morphed. They were filled with light and hope, warmth exuding from every corner. And then, a voice, calling out to her softly, “ _Adora… Come to me...”_

* * *

Angella woke somewhat suddenly, and lay still, wanting to go back to her dream. She’d been out on the grounds, lying in the warm sun, and then wished for Adora to be there with her. The last thing she could remember was seeing Adora’s face growing closer. 

Groaning, she rolled over onto her back, adjusting her wings beneath her and staring up at the ceiling where long ago she’d put up stars. It was still dark outside, many hours before dawn. Her body still felt quite tired, but she didn’t think she could get back to sleep— her longing for Adora was everywhere, her smile, her big blue eyes, her gentle touch, the way she smelt like freshly chopped wood and the way her lips tasted like bliss— Angella ground her teeth together. Doubt was pressing down on her again, despite Glimmer’s acceptance, despite their kiss— a kiss that had remained on her mind for nearly every second since they’d shared it. What if her daughter had merely been appeasing her? What if Adora didn’t want her like Angella wanted her? What if—

A soft knock sounded on her door. Angella’s heart began to race along with her thoughts. Something else had happened she was sure, praying as she got up and practically flew to the door. She opened it—

_Adora._

Her hair was down, falling around her face. Her eyes were bright, intense, the look momentarily stunning Angella. They stared at each other for a moment, both frozen by uncertainty. Adora finally took a few steps forward, Angella matching them with a few steps back. Adora hesitated, but then closed the door behind her once she was inside. 

Like a tidal wave, it struck them both how utterly free they now were to crash into each other. Adora closed the space between them, Angella wrapped her arms around Adora, and their lips met again. Doubts were burned from them as they tangled together, lost in the fire of touch. Angella spread her wings and with one thrust pushed them until Adora’s back was against the door. She gasped softly, but Angella caught her lips back in the heated kiss. Adora’s hands caressed from her face, to her neck, down to her waist, pulling her even tighter against her. 

Hot, aching desire flared between Angella’s legs, but there was something she wanted to say first.

“Adora,” she whispered, pulling away and opening her eyes. Adora had just opened hers, and her pupils were so wide Angella could fall into them. She raised a hand and cupped Adora’s face, caressing it, brushing her thumb over her lips. Adora’s strong hands were gripping her waist, and pulled tighter as she did so.

“Angella,” Adora whispered into her fingers. She brought one of her hands to Angella’s face as well.

“I love you,” Angella said with gentle force, letting the truth of her words fill her with light and power. Adora gave her a dazzling smile and leaned forward until their foreheads were touching.

“I love you, too,” said Adora. Angella never should have doubted, not for one second, her heart now bursting with certainty. 

***

Adora had never felt more sure of anything in her life. The beautiful woman in her arms, kissing her lips, expressing her love— it all felt so _right_. 

Slowly, she pressed her lips to Angella’s again, feeling the softness, the taste of her overwhelming. This kiss was slower, more passionate. Angella was slowly grinding her lower body into Adora, and the wetness and heat at her core she felt start with their first kiss intensified. Angella’s lips parted, an invitation which Adora seized, running her tongue along her bottom lip, earning a glorious little moan in return. 

Wanting to coax more sounds from her, Adora’s lips left Angella’s and began to trail down her jaw, and stopping at her elegant neck just below her ear. Adora lavished the skin there with kisses, and then sucked, relishing the soft gasps it drew out. She nibbled Angella’s earlobe before trailing more kisses down her neck, to her collarbone, all the while pulling up the ends of her nightgown until she felt skin, _gloriously soft._ Angella’s fingers were digging into Adora’s neck, her breathing shallow and hot, turning Adora on even more— she could hardly believe herself capable of turning a Queen into this shaking, aroused being. Adora wanted more.

Slowly, she pulled the nightgown up, gazing up at Angella’s face, and enjoying the look of surprise and need she saw there. Angella put her arms up, and Adora brought the thin fabric over her head, pulling it off, making sure it went over her wings as well, and tossed it to the side. 

For a moment, Adora couldn’t help but stare at her, her lavender skin uninterrupted from neck to waist. Her breasts were fuller than her wardrobe had always hinted at, her stomach drawn in soft lines. Adora let out a nervous little laugh, which caused Angella to blush.

“What’s so funny?” she asked, running her fingers through Adora’s hair. It was hard to think, to form words when all she wanted to do was wrap her lips around Angella’s already taut purple nipples. 

“This is kinda crazy, but good crazy,” she managed to say, leaning down and trailing more kisses across Angella’s chest. 

“Is this…” she paused, more from nervousness than breathlessness. Adora looked back up at her. “Is this your first time?” she asked, cupping Adora’s face. She nodded. Angella bit her lip. “Maybe we shouldn’t… there’s always time—”

“No! I mean, I want to, I want _you_. So bad,” Adora reached up and brought Angella’s face to hers again. “I’m ready, and it’s not like the Horde left us completely clueless.” They both chuckled.

“I want you, too. But you have to tell me if you ever want to stop.” Her voice was serious, her eyes burning even still with desire. 

“I will.” 

Angella smiled and brought her lips to Adora’s again. Her deft hands made quick work of Adora’s jacket, unbuckling and letting it fall to the floor before starting on her shirt. Her breath hitched as warm fingers found skin, and Angella smiled into her lips as she brought the shirt up, breaking their kiss. She tossed it to the side and peeled off Adora’s compression bra with an eagerness, a hunger in her eyes that stole Adora’s breath. Her knees were shaking, and she was glad she still had the door for support. Once that last barrier between them was gone, Angella trailed soft, gentle kisses down Adora’s freshly exposed neck and chest, and sank to her knees. Adora stared down at her, running her fingers through Angella’s fine pink hair, digging her nails gently into her scalp.

Angella looked up at her as she stuck out her tongue and used it to flick Adora’s stiffening nipple. A jolt of pleasure ran through her entire body, beginning and ending in her pussy, which was pulsing with heat. A moan escaped her as Angella trailed her tongue around the nipple, teasing her, still looking up at her, before pulling it into her mouth and sucking, flicking, sucking until Adora was nearly going to collapse with pleasure. She’d moaned quite loudly throughout, and as Angella pulled away, her lips slick, she smiled in a way that made Adora pull her back up to her lips where they met once again with a fiery passion. 

Lips, fingers, hands, skin on skin, Adora drank it all in. She’d imagined being kissed like this, being held like this, but she didn’t think reality would ever be better than a fantasy. The breathy, desperate sounds Angella made— as Adora nibbled on her bottom lip, or dipped her hands beneath her underwear to grip the perfect cheeks that fit in her hands like they were made to— these delicious sounds were the only sounds she wanted to hear for the rest of her life. 

Without warning, Angella picked Adora up and flew them to her bed, laying her down gently. She straddled Adora’s hips and lowered her body down on her, igniting Adora with the feel of it, the pressure. They shared a brief but intense kiss before Angella started to drag her lips up Adora’s jaw, stopping at her ear. One of her hands trailed down Adora’s stomach.

“You’re so beautiful,” she purred into Adora’s ear, then dragged her lips slowly down her throat. 

“Says the divine angel,” said Adora shakily, her breathing shallow and erratic as Angella’s hand dipped beneath her pants. She laughed softly, her warm breath sending a wave of pleasure over Adora’s body. She leaned away as her hand neared the edge of Adora’s underwear, and their eyes met. An eternity in those warm, pink eyes, in her fingers, finally going beneath the hem of the thin fabric. 

Adora gasped as Angella’s warm fingertips grazed her outer lips. Angella smiled at her, leaning down and kissing Adora everywhere on her face but her lips, saving those for last. Her fingers were moving slowly, purposefully, avoiding the place Adora wanted them _most._

“Angella, _please,”_ she moaned against Angella’s lips, bucking her hips slightly. She was nearly shaking in desperate anticipation. 

“Please what?” Angella breathed, withdrawing her hand just enough so that Adora’s movement didn’t get her what she wanted. 

“I want…” Adora started, feeling— despite Angella’s love, her adoration— self-conscious. She felt crazy with desire, for the woman on top of her, both in _this_ and just… in everything. “I want you. I want you inside me,” she said, digging her fingers into Angella’s long pink hair, into the soft skin of her back. Angella pulled away from her again, grinning a dazzling smile, love and triumph blazing on her face.

And then her warm fingers found the source of Adora’s heat, sinking into the silky wetness, throwing her into ecstasy. And yet the fingers were still only teasing. Adora’s own fingers dug even harder into the soft planes of Angella’s back, grounding herself.

“Oh Adora, you’re so wet already…” Angella purred, trailing her fingers up towards Adora’s hooded clit. Her hips bucked as they found their mark, and Adora lost herself in pleasure. Angella was still gazing down at her, watching her come apart, until it seemed she no longer could help herself either, and started to caress every part of Adora’s face, neck, and chest with wet, heated kisses. Adora was anchored to reality only in these kisses and in the quickening rhythm of Angella’s fingers, every other part of her was tangling somewhere else with what she felt was Angella’s bright, glorious soul. 

Adora was rising, helpless to it, knowing she was close. The sounds she was making would have embarrassed her had she any space to care, but Angella was coaxing her on in husky tones between ravishing kisses. But there was something she wanted more than anything before she could come.

“Angella,” she whimpered, barely able to speak. “I… inside… please.” Angella moaned as she looked back up into Adora’s eyes from where she’d been trailing her tongue down Adora’s stomach. Under her gaze Adora almost came, but held it back, desperate for her lover’s entrance, maybe even…

Angella pulled her hand out from Adora’s underwear, and she whined from the loss of contact. But Angella was peeling off Adora’s pants with a speed and urgency that almost made up for it. Then her underwear— Angella pulled these down slowly as she positioned her face just above Adora’s aching heat. When she was finally revealed, the air of the room felt cold, foreign.

“ _Fuck…”_ Angella moaned, the soft curse making Adora flush and smile; never hearing Angella curse and then hearing it now, with her lips lowering onto Adora’s… she twisted her fingers in Angella’s hair as they made contact, gasping.

 _Her tongue—_ wet, so warm, insistent— found Adora’s clit and her mouth closed around it, sucking and flicking in an irresistible motion. Adora was lost to the pleasure once again, Angella somehow reaching even deeper into her soul, holding it in her warm, loving hands. Angella’s hand was caressing her thigh, getting closer and closer to her folds until she felt her fingers teasing her entrance once again. Adora hoped she wouldn’t have to beg, even though it was undeniably hot— _oh!_ Angella entered her with just one finger, and Adora knew it wasn’t enough, her walls ached to be filled. As though she could read Adora’s mind, Angella added a second, and Adora mewled with pleasure. Angella hummed her own pleasure and the vibration drove Adora ever closer, the growing rhythm sure to bring her to her peak. She was lost in it again, every part of her anchored beneath Angella’s persistent mouth, finger hooking to reach that place Adora could never quite reach when she pleased herself.

Rising and rising, Adora had no control of herself. Her heart felt like it was going to burst with love and joy, hardly daring to believe she deserved something like this, someone like Angella. Her hips bucked, but Angella held her down, picking up her rhythm. The hand not inside her reached up to entwine with Adora’s, and Adora broke, shattering around Angella’s fingers, into her mouth, her peak nearly violent in it’s ecstasy. Angella didn’t stop, and Adora rode her wave until she was spent, shaking, gasping for air. Only when her body fell slack did Angella pull her fingers out, and Adora gave a small sigh, missing them already. Her vision was unfocused, but as Angella gave her sensitive pussy one last lick, their eyes met again. 

Angella’s face, glistening with Adora’s arousal, was the most beautiful thing Adora had ever seen. She wiped it on the back of her hand and crawled towards Adora, the hunger in her eyes not totally satisfied. Adora sat up and met her halfway, their lips dancing somewhat uncoordinated in their joined bliss. 

“That was amazing,” Adora said when she pulled away for air. 

“I’ve been wanting to make you feel amazing like that for _so long_ ,” Angella said, her voice low and warm. _By Etheria…_ Adora didn’t really know why she was surprised, she had suspected her feelings were at least somewhat reciprocated after their almost-kiss weeks ago, but… having it confirmed for her, that her longing had been shared by Angella was something she could hardly handle. She wrapped her arms around Angella’s waist and pulled her closer so their chests were pressed tight together, skin on _glorious_ skin. Angella was straddling her legs again, her knees on either side of Adora’s thighs, and she could feel Angella’s wetness even through her underwear as she settled herself on top of them. 

She had so many questions, so many things to say, but what Adora wanted more than anything was to make Angella feel as good as she had just felt. And even though she was nervous about doing it wrong or not being good enough, she’d thought about pleasing Angella enough times that being able to do it for real extinguished that nervousness, like snuffing out a sputtering candle.

Adora pressed her lips to Angella’s again, realizing in the haze of desire that she was now tasting herself, making her burn with the need to taste Angella as well. But first…

She trailed one of her hands to Angella’s stomach, down it’s soft lavender plane, to the tip of her underwear. Angella’s breath hitched, and she moaned softly into Adora’s mouth. Her lips parted and their tongues met, momentarily distracting Adora from her exploration. But soon the pulse in her own center reminded her. Adora kept going, pushing beneath the hem—

“Wait, Adora,” Angella said breathlessly. Adora pulled her hand away and drew her face back, looking at Angella anxiously. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked, feeling the cold, heavy fog of rejection beginning to creep over her.

“You don’t have to— to do this— I’m…” she took a deep breath, not meeting Adora’s eyes. “I’m not worth it.” She hung her head, resting it on Adora’s shoulder.

“What are you talking about?” Adora said, lifting Angella’s chin. Her eyes were swimming with… fear, and doubt. And she wouldn’t meet Adora’s eyes. “Angella, look at me,” she commanded with gentle force. Finally, she did. Her fingers twisted into Adora’s hair. She wasn’t breathing at all now as they stared into each other’s eyes. Adora tried to fill her own with all the love, commitment, and desire she possessed for the angelic being in her arms, for _Angella._ But it seemed her eyes alone weren’t cutting it. “I _love you,_ Angella. I loved you even before you sacrificed yourself for me. Before you finally let me in. Before you rescued me, saved me for a second time.” She pressed her forehead to Angella’s, bringing both hands to either side of her face. “I want you, in every way, right now, tomorrow, every day. Please, let me prove it to you,” she finished, nearing a whisper. 

“Oh _heavens_ , Adora… I didn’t know you were one for speech-making,” she said, a tear slipping down her face while she chuckled softly. Adora wiped it away. She could feel the energy around Angella and beneath her skin heat again— not a burn, but like the warmth of the sun rising on a new day. Her dusty-pink eyes were now shining, shimmering with a glow that _did_ set Adora on fire. “Adora…” she purred, digging her fingers in deeper, pulling her hair gently. Adora dragged her lips slowly across Angella’s cheekbone to her ear.

“Let me take care of you,” Adora whispered, and she felt Angella melt under her fingertips as she trailed kisses like butterfly wings down Angella’s neck, who even let a soft, high-pitched moan escape her. 

“You have me, Adora,” she breathed, her voice high and desperate, her hips grinding slowly against Adora. “ _I’m yours.”_

Like lovers that had kissed for years rather than just an hour, their lips found each other again, and Adora resumed her trail to what she knew would be paradise, desperate to take what was _hers_. Hesitation had been burned from her and only pure devotion to Angella’s pleasure remained, to the wet, silky lips that parted for her fingers like flower petals.

Angella moaned the loudest she had yet, bucking her hips and breathing hard into Adora’s ear as she dragged her lips down to worship the delicate skin of Angella’s neck with her tongue, just as she discovered her stiff bud peeking out of its hood. Angella was already shuddering around her, and as Adora caressed the sensitive nub in a firm circular motion, Angella cut off her moans, which had become breathy and constant, by biting into Adora’s shoulder. 

“I want to hear you,” Adora said, using her free hand to pull Angella’s face back to her own. Her eyes were glazed with desire, but she obeyed, and Adora watched, entranced, as she quickened her fingers and Angella let out desperate whines, her eyes never leaving Adora’s. This was surely heaven, nothing could be more transcendent, more perfect, than watching Angella fall to pieces like this, because of _her._

“Adora!” she gasped, her body ceasing to move against Adora, frozen at the peak of her pleasure. Her wings thrust out, their full length nearly spanning the width of the room. Adora didn't stop, though her wrist ached, she wanted to coax every bit of pleasure from Angella. She felt a warm splash of arousal on her thighs, and she moaned herself, desperately wanting to taste her. 

Finally, Angella went limp around her, breathing hard. Adora wanted _more._ She pushed farther back, not _into_ her but just enough to coat her fingers. She brought them to her mouth, watching Angella watch her as she sucked the juices from them.

She’d expected a flavor like her own, but Angella was _sweet,_ intoxicating, perfect. 

“You taste so good,” Adora whimpered. Angella gave her a coy smile, already grinding against her again. She was glowing, the pink aura around her more vibrant than Adora had ever seen it. “I want more,” she nearly growled. 

Adora threw their weight to the side, rolling until she was on top of Angella who had gasped in surprise, adjusting her wings so they were splayed out underneath her. Adora smiled down at her, wanting to cherish this moment, all of their moments, forever. Angella smiled back, and pulled Adora down so their lips could crash against each other. 

Gently at first, Adora pressed her knee into the soaked fabric of Angella’s underwear, earning a delicious little moan as their tongues rolled over the other. She fell into a slow rhythm, appreciating the way it felt as Angella rocked beneath her, the way it felt to have her moan vibrate through Adora’s tongue. How did anyone _ever_ stop doing this?

Almost reluctantly, Adora pulled away, eager to lavish the rest of Angella with her tongue. She spent time with the soft skin of her neck, never tiring of how she could feel Angella’s quick pulse. The dip of her collarbone was something she’d always admired, and now she could admire it with her tongue instead of merely eyes. And Angella’s breasts… Adora grew weak at the knees as she fondled one and traced the delicate skin of the other, leaving trails of wetness, learning its softness, its tender underside, and of course, the irresistible purple peaks. She looked up at Angella as she swirled her tongue around the stiff nipple, delighted to see she was watching, squirming under Adora’s touch, already bucking her hips. Angella twisted her fingers once again into Adora’s hair, pushing her head down, and though she thought about resisting, of teasing her further, Adora wanted her mouth around it just as bad. 

She flicked the peak with her tongue, and Angella gasped, fingers digging in. Her hand mimicked the motion on Angella’s other breast as she finally let go, ravaging the firm nipple with attention. She swirled and sucked, enjoying the way she tasted and felt, keeping her eyes locked onto the swelling heat of Angella’s.

“That _tongue,”_ she mewled, finally breaking their gaze and throwing her head back. Adora knew she was thinking of how her tongue, it’s motion, might feel applied somewhere else, and Adora was thinking the same thing. Her head swam with anticipation and she switched to the other nipple, coaxing fresh moans from her lover. But once again, Adora couldn’t resist moving on, trailing her tongue down the slope, sweeping it over the crease beneath Angella’s breast, dipping into her bellybutton, and stopping at the hem of Angella’s underwear. She hadn’t noticed before how sexy they were— lacy, rose petal pink, with a dark, wet stain now decorating the slimmer section between her legs. 

Adora teased her by snagging the hem with her teeth and pulling up, letting the elastic snap back with a little slap. Angella seemed unable to contain herself, chest rising erratically, hips gyrating, seeking release once again. As hot as it was to be so close to her warm, delicious core, there was something even more entrancing about how she no longer seemed to be holding back her reactions, truly free from the façade of collected, centered Queen Angella, no longer weighed down with doubt. 

Adora trailed wet kisses up her thigh slowly, luxuriating in its satiny feel, before heading back down, stopping once again at the edge of the fabric. Nervousness tingled at the back of her mind, but anticipation and excitement overrode it entirely as she slowly peeled the thin material down Angella’s legs, eyes widening, mouth watering. She tossed them away and took in the swelling lavender petals of Angella’s pussy beneath a patch of pink hair, lips glistening with arousal. Nothing, _nothing_ had ever been more appealing than this, and Adora groaned as she spread Angella’s legs even wider. 

“ _So beautiful…”_ she murmured. Her heart began to beat wildly as she lowered her lips to Angella’s, and finally buried her mouth in the silky folds. Angella bucked wildly as Adora’s tongue swiped from her entrance to the swollen clit. She was as sweet as she had been on Adora’s fingers, sweeter even, and Adora let herself go as she swirled and sucked and hummed on the sensitive bud. 

“Harder,” Angella moaned, grinding into Adora’s face as though in emphasis. Adora was happy to, increasing her pressure, loving the way Angella responded. She wanted to be inside her, too, and she brought her fingers to Angella’s entrance, stroking close but not going in just yet, not knowing whether Angella wanted it. But even caught in the waves of pleasure, it seemed Angella could once again read Adora’s thoughts. “Yes, _please_ , fill me.” 

They both moaned in harmony as Adora pushed a finger inside, the warm walls clenching around her. _More._ The thought was hers, and it also wasn’t. But she was too distracted with need to question it, nor the strange tingling in her head as she added a second finger. Adora listened to Angella’s sounds as she found a rhythm, trying to figure out what would make her come, and soon she’d found it. Her tongue still swirled as she thrust her fingers, harder than she thought she would, but the sounds Angella was making was proof enough that it was good. Each thrust, she grew closer to finding that sacred spot near her center, until finally she _did—_ Angella called out her name like a desperate, passionate prayer. Wetness spilled around Adora's knuckles, and she eagerly lapped it up as Angella tightened around her— 

She was suddenly engulfed by bright, warm pink light, and at the center of it all, _Angella..._

***

Angella couldn’t hold it back, didn’t _want_ to anymore, as Adora brought her to euphoria once again. There was nothing in this universe that could have compared to the bliss starting at her core and radiating to every inch of her body as Adora thrust inside of her for the first time. She felt as her magic reached out, an extension of her will, and enveloped Adora— _more_ , she shouted in her head, and her Adora obeyed.

Ecstasy born from thrusting fingers, a tongue, lips latched around her— her body simply could not contain it any longer. 

“Adora!” she cried, and Angella mounted the peak of her pleasure. Shattering, contracting around Adora’s fingers, she felt as though no pleasure had ever been greater, no way her body could hold it…

And then she was somewhere else. Heat as though from the sun danced over her skin, joy and bliss the only two things on her mind, until— 

_Adora._ She was there too, grinning, surprise clinging to her face, along with a bright, golden glow extending from her head to her feet. They embraced, laughing, and suddenly, Angella could no longer tell where she ended and Adora began. Whatever this was, she _never_ wanted it to end— love, desire, and happiness were all she could feel…

At some point, Angella became aware of herself, her breathless body still shaking under Adora. Remnants of that other place lingered in the way she felt, in the golden glow around Adora, who was staring up at her like she was a goddess, nearly as shaky and breathless as she was. 

She shuddered as Adora placed a last kiss on her sensitive clitoris, and then crawled forward to brush her wet lips on Angella’s. Though she was still having trouble with coherent thought and movement, instinct took over as she pulled Adora tight against her. 

It was with a fluttering sense of embarrassment that she enjoyed the taste of herself on Adora’s lips, but she much preferred Adora’s heady taste instead, warm and natural. A small laugh shook her as her core pulsed _again_ with desire for Adora— apparently nothing could fully sate her. Adora pulled away, an amused smile dawning on her perfect lips. 

“What’s so funny?” she asked, brushing away a strand of pink hair that had fallen across Angella’s face.

“You, stealing my line,” Angella replied, her smile widening. Adora shared it, but as Angella watched the corner of her lips pull upward with the intention of committing it to memory, a question passed over her face. “What is it?”

“What, uh…” she was giggling, averting her eyes in embarrassment. Angella was vividly curious at what could possibly embarrass the woman who had just ravaged her so completely. “What just happened?” 

“I believe it’s called an orgasm,” she said, putting on a faux-instructive voice. “Really Adora, you should peruse the biology section of the library sometime, it’s very _enlightening.”_ Adora rolled her eyes, but stayed quiet, waiting for the real answer. Though she teased, Angella knew exactly which ‘what’ Adora was referring to, but she didn’t have an answer herself. 

Nothing of the sort had ever happened when she’d made love to Micah… This was uncharted, but not unwelcome, territory for her as well, though she had already begun to develop a theory. 

“Do you remember when I called out to Glimmer while I was being held, and you heard it, too?” Adora nodded, settling herself next to Angella, who turned and enveloped them both with her free wing, the light coming in from the moons shining through her almost translucent feathers, ethereal. “I would have to do a little research, but I think I may have accidentally created a bond between us, linking our magic.” 

Adora’s lips parted, and she brushed Angella’s cheek with the calloused but still soft pad of her thumb. 

“But… I’m not—”

“You carry the magic of She-Ra inside you, Adora. It’s not the sword, it never has been. It’s _you.”_

Adora laughed nervously, and Angella heard as her heartbeat quickened it’s pace. 

“You sound like the _Void,”_ she said, pronouncing the title with sarcasm. Angella’s heart squeezed, remembering the terrifying face. She shook it off, replacing it with the feeling of Adora all around her. “They called me a vessel.”

“You are not a vessel. Your magic is within you, yes, but you are as much a part of it as our atoms are filled with stardust. That monster was a fool to think they could part you from it.”

Adora’s eyes filled with wonder. The sight was every bit as intoxicating as the sight of her lips, her body, her soul. She pressed closer, pulling her wing tighter around them. 

“Magical orgasm,” Adora said, wiggling her eyebrows, causing them both to laugh. 

Angella had no thought for anything but this, their naked bodies pressed together, sharing joy, sharing magic. It was not something she ever expected to feel again, but she knew this was exactly where she was supposed to be. 

“I love you,” she said, saying the words slowly, letting them coat her tongue, fill her veins. “Desperately. With every part of me.” Adora’s eyes were beginning to glow, almost imperceptibly. 

Adora didn’t speak, but showed her love to Angella in the gentle but insistent rhythm of fingers, reaching inside her, exposing her soul and bringing them both back into the warm reaches of eternity, trapped in their new reality and all of its dazzling magic. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's going to be an epilogue, and I've already started thinking of writing a sequel, but no promises. Thanks so much to every who has read, left kudos, or commented, I really enjoyed sharing a strange bit of my heart with this story, with these two.


	13. Beginnings in an End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The thing they never thought would happen happened, so... now what?

“Why didn’t you say something to me sooner?” Adora asked, tracing the lines of Angella’s arm as they cuddled, Angella the little spoon, her soft wings currently folded tight against her back. It was the first time either woman had spoken in a while, and the sun was starting to peek over the horizon. Adora was propped up on her elbow, staring down at the gentle glow of her lover with tender eyes. Angella chuckled softly, and Adora knew she would never tire of the sound, no matter how many times she heard it. 

“I could ask the same of you, so go on then, why didn’t _you_ confess to _me_?” she said, a mischievous tone coloring a voice still husky from her last orgasm. Adora’s face warmed a little, reluctant to share her own doubts. Angella sighed, a hint of regret tinging the sound. She rolled over to face Adora, cupping her cheek, and placing a warm, soft kiss on her lips that lingered once she’d pulled away. “There are so many reasons, Adora, but none of them seem as dire right now.”

“Give me one,” said Adora, wanting to understand her. She was tired of just guessing at what went on in that private, pink head of hers. 

“Shall I give you the most obvious, the same reason I’m sure you didn’t tell me as well?” Her eyebrows raised. 

“Glimmer,” Adora sighed. Angella’s lips pulled up at the corners, but her eyes became somewhat sad. “She’s your daughter, and my best friend. But she’ll get over it, she already seems to have accepted it, at least a little.” Angella’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, maybe it’s tolerance then.”

“I imagine she feels more strongly about the concept of you and I than she’s going to tell me, but…” she hesitated, biting her lip. “Part of me doesn’t care. I denied myself the pleasure of openly loving you for long enough.” Adora’s heart squeezed, and she watched Angella’s eyes as they filled with heat once again. Her core pulsed, and she was surprised at the small amount of cause it took to excite her, even now, after hours of passionate sex.

“How long, exactly?” Adora asked, letting the sudden arousal lower her voice, gripping Angella’s waist, pulling her closer. 

“A while.” A blush was spreading across her cheeks, a beautiful, rich purple. 

“Come on, I’m sure you already know how long I was pining after you,” Adora said in a soft whine. 

“Actually Adora, denial is quite the memory drain, why don’t you remind me?” Her warm hand was beginning to trail down Adora’s stomach, but it stopped short of where Adora knew wetness had already begun to pool. Fingers teased in the patch of hair at the top of her pelvis, dipping lower and lower, never going where she wanted them to be. 

“This is bribery,” Adora said, her breathlessness giving away just how much she wanted it.

“Hardly, darling,” purred Angella, leaning in and pulling at Adora’s lower lip with her teeth. 

The anticipation was becoming unbearable, and Adora barely resisted squirming under her lover’s hand. This side of Angella, the teasing, slightly more dominant side, was irresistible. Adora could hold out as long as she was able, but she would give in, it was an inevitability. 

“You want a list? I think the first time I wanted you would surprise you,” she said, enjoying the look of true need on Angella’s face. 

“Did the dutiful soldier lust after her Queen?” she asked, and her fingers went lower, but _around_ , to Adora’s thigh, squeezing between them, pushing one up. Adora wasted no time in parting her legs, planting her foot on the bed so she didn’t have to hold it up. 

“When I—” she cut off, gasping as Angella’s hand swiped once through the wetness before settling once again in the patch of hair. Adora groaned. Angella just smiled seductively at her. “When I presented myself to you for the first time, as She-Ra.”

“When you _knelt_ before me as Adora.” Stars burst in Adora’s eyes as fingers finally found her clit, starting up an agonizingly slow rhythm. “When you pledged yourself to me.” Adora moaned, the words doing almost as much to her as the grinding fingers.

“I was mostly terrified, but,” she said, having to work to remember how to speak. “She-Ra… her power… made it hard to ignore certain feelings until I learned how.” 

“Tell me another.” Her voice was demanding, but still loving. 

“A few weeks after that, maybe, I saw you and the General come out of the War Room alone,” she said, feeling like she was truly confessing now. “She was talking to you and you smiled at her, and I—” Angella picked up her pace, staring into Adora’s eyes. “I felt so jealous, but I didn’t know why then.” 

“The General? Hmm,” she said, smirking. “I’d never considered that. Juliet _is_ quite attractive…” Her smile became mischievous as she saw the look on Adora’s face. She was so close now, and as she saw in her mind’s eye Angella kissing the General, Adora moaned, a strange mix of pleasure and anger. “But I already had my eye on someone else.” Her voice was silk and honey as she leaned in to kiss Adora, sucking on her bottom lip, her fingers steadily getting faster. Adora moaned into her mouth and she felt Angella smile against her lips before pulling away again. “You are the only person I have desired since you arrived, since you knelt at my throne. Years, Adora, I’ve longed for your touch, your love, for years.”

Like she had uttered a magic spell, Adora came, calling out Angella’s name. Beyond the waves of pleasure crashing all around her, she felt her magic pulsing, reaching out, and she embraced it. Light, warmth, _Angella._ They were one again, twirling, laughing, moaning— a cosmic dance of euphoria. It seemed to stretch on forever, never ending…

When Adora opened her eyes, Angella’s face was still contorted in their shared pleasure, and Adora, seizing the moment before it faded away completely, found Angella’s clit, swollen, her arousal coating _everything_. She gasped, and began to rock against Adora, her own hand still twirling Adora’s bud, and within seconds they were shattering together again, lost back in the light.

* * *

“Bow! Come on, we should just go,” Glimmer’s voice was slightly muffled on the other side of Angella’s massive double doors as Adora roughly pulled her shirt back on. A guard had knocked loudly, interrupting the whispering and soft laughter that had been the best morning Adora had ever woken up to. Well, mid-afternoon now. The guard had only said, without opening the doors, that Queen Angella had visitors, not who they were. And then Bow started pounding on the door, no doubt being restrained by the guards now. Behind her, Angella was smoothly slipping into a new outfit.

“I’ve seen you in a million different robes, why not put one of them on?” she whispered.

“Adora!” she whispered back, blushing and swatting at Adora’s arm as she pulled on a pair of tight, white pants. “I’m sure they have no doubt figured out you weren’t in your bedroom, and have come _here_ , why make it any more obvious that—” she blushed even harder. “That we spent the night together.”

“What, are you going to make me climb off of your terrace so they don’t spot me?” Adora said, smirking and closing the space between them, drawn like a magnet.

“Of course not,” Angella said, brushing her knuckles across Adora’s cheek. “But if we’re both fully dressed—”

“Oh screw it— Adora, I know you’re in there, too! I just want to talk!” Glimmer shouted, adding her own pounding knocks. 

Adora scrambled for the rest of her clothes that had been tossed every which way in their desperation last night, while Angella gave her rather ruffled pink hair a quick brush, restoring it to its usual sleek state. 

“Coming sweetheart!” Angella said, making her way to the door. Adora had just put the last item of clothing on, and was pulling her messy hair back into a ponytail. Angella turned, made sure Adora was decent, and opened the door. Glimmer was standing there, her face much more pink that it usually was. Adora didn’t know what to do with herself, so she settled for trying to look as natural as possible as she sat down on a pouf. Glimmer flicked her eyes between them both a few times, some emotion brewing on her face, before turning to Bow, who Adora couldn’t see.

“Bow, can you please go, uh—” she said, seeming to search for an excuse, but sighed. “Just go do something else, I need to talk to them alone.”

“Okay,” he said, voice filled with relief. His face showed up in the doorway when he leaned forward and pecked Glimmer on the cheek, causing her to blush even harder, and then he left. Glimmer looked back at them, and stepped through the door. 

“Like I said, we need to talk.” Angella closed the door, and met Adora’s eyes, her own filled with quiet panic. Glimmer sat down on the pouf adjacent to Adora and waited for her mother to join them. Looking more like the child waiting to be scolded than Glimmer had ever looked, Angella sank down on the couch that faced them both.

An awkward silence filled the room. Adora wished that she’d had time to shower, or brush her teeth, or at the very least splash her face with some water. Angella was acting very much unlike herself as she fidgeted with one of the buttons on her long, yellow shirt. 

“I don’t want _any_ details of whatever you guys did last night,” she said, shuddering lightly. “But I would like to know what to expect, you know, from now on. Maybe set some boundaries.” Her eyes flicked to Adora, who gave a small smile. 

“Of course, sweetheart. I know how strange this is,” said Angella, stilling her hands and trying to arrange her face into an expression that wasn’t embarrassment. Adora felt a strange urge to laugh. 

“Mom, I have to admit something first,” said Glimmer, staring at the ground, her face slipping into chagrin and guilt. “I told Shadow Weaver that I thought you might have feelings for Adora.”

Silence followed her words, and Adora couldn’t stop her mouth from falling open as she processed them. _She suspected— Shadow Weaver— wha—?_ Adora’s eyes flew to Angella who… didn’t look surprised. She smoothed out her shirt and pursed her lips.

“So she was telling me the truth then, that’s slightly comforting and also highly problematic.” Adora and Glimmer both stared at her. She paused, glancing back and forth between them. “I went to confront her about something else, and she taunted me with your confidence in her.”

“So you knew that I knew,” began Glimmer, using her hands to try and put it all together. “And you still didn’t say anything to me?”

“This happened the day before the Princess Prom, Glimmer, and before Adora was— was kidnapped,” she fumbled over the words, and Adora felt strange, like months had passed instead of just a day. “I planned on telling you everything myself that night, and fully intended on keeping away from Adora.”

“So, just to be clear,” Glimmer said, pinching her nose in the same way Angella often did. Adora gave a light cough to cover her snort. “Nothing was going on before that?”

“Did you think I was lying to you?” Adora asked, a little hurt that her best friend thought she would have acted on her feelings without saying something to her first. 

“I don’t know Adora, I thought…” Glimmer mumbled, looking down at the ground again. “I thought maybe… behind my back.” 

Adora met Angella’s eyes again, and they shared a brief moment of guilt for Glimmer, for the different kinds of pain they had caused her.

“I’m sorry,” Adora said.

“I’m sorry, too, sweetheart. But I can’t keep myself from Adora any longer. I love her.” Adora thought her heart could get no bigger after last night, but hearing her say it to Glimmer… 

“Okay, okay, no more shooting heart eyes at each other please,” Glimmer said, a small smile beginning to grow on her face, despite her words. Adora and Angella looked away from each other, and Glimmer continued. “Alright, boundaries. I love you, Adora, but if you and my mom ever have any ‘problems’... well I’ll listen but—”

“I’ll use my best judgement,” Adora said, winking. 

“Thanks,” she mumbled, smiling a very embarrassed smile. “And mom, no using your relationship with Adora as an excuse to spy on me.”

“Spy on you? Glimmer what—”

“What I choose to share with you is what you get,” she said, grinning quite smugly.

“Fine,” said Angella, with an exasperated sigh. 

“One more thing… you guys can kiss in front of me but _ugh_ please just keep it light, okay?” Glimmer looked ready to bury her face in her hands.

Adora and Angella gave their agreement, fighting smiles. To Adora, it seemed nobody in the room knew how to deal with the conversation they’d just had, at least she certainly didn’t. Maybe in a few weeks or even a few months it would feel real.

“Okay, I’m leaving, I promised Bow he could take me out to teach me how to shoot a bow.” She got up, straightening out her cape. “Oh, by the way, we’re dating now.” She glanced between Angella’s shocked face and the smug smile Adora was wearing, and left, shutting the door lightly behind her. 

“I have to admit, I saw that coming, but to have it thrust on me all of the sudden—”

“So when were you going to tell me about Shadow Weaver?” Adora asked, crossing her arms, and giving Angella a sly smirk. 

“There are many things I haven’t told you, Adora, but so many I can’t wait to,” she gushed, holding out her hand. Adora grinned, taking it and letting out a soft gasp as she felt herself pulled hard into Angella, their noses bumping a little as lips felt for lips. They laughed together, until their lips finally met. A promise on those soft, warm lips, in the way Angella’s arms wrapped around her, holding her so tightly. Adora hoped Angella would never let her go. 

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap on this part! I'm committing here to a sequel, but I think I may write most of it first before posting chapter by chapter, so it may be a while. Who knows, world is crazy, things change. Again, thank you to everyone who read, left kudos, and/or commented!! It seriously helps <3 Stay safe out there!


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